Selah’s Bed: A Novel

Sex was a way to stop the crying, the powerlessness of not feeling beautiful. She always felt beautiful under lustful hands. Lustful hands can’t lie. The want, greed, and emptiness is real. That type of emptiness can’t be imagined. And she trusted it because she understood it. The magic that disillusioned others about loving was what she liked most — the emptiness always comes back. She could count on that. And as long as it did, she could keep believing that she didn’t need promises of forever. — from Selah’s Bed Selah Wells takes on lovers to deal with the stresses in her life. She feels most alive under the touch of new hands. But she’s married to a minister in the church, and as the old adage goes, secrets done in the dark will come to the light. With this sensual, heartrending second novel, bestselling author Jenoyne Adams further establishes herself as a stunning young talent. This probing and engaging work explores how a woman can use sex to gain acceptance, escape her past, and eventually endanger her very soul. Selah and Parker met in college when love and sexual exploration were fresh for both of them. After the loss of their only child challenges their marriage, Parker turns away from their sexual passion and immerses himself in the work of God. Selah, who was young and felt unequipped to make decisions about the daughter she lost, now harbors bitterness toward her husband, her grandmother, and God. She looks for salvation through sex and in her photography of nude black men. Interweaving scenes from Selah’s adult life and moments from her childhood — spent in a lively housing project where she learned things beyond her years — Adams deftly depicts Selah’s journey. As her grandmother succumbs to a prescription-drug addiction and Alzheimer’s disease, Selah’s latest lover, Peter, tries to get her to confront her fear and anger during their lovemaking. Unable to give up the regrets that have fueled her behavior all these years, Selah resists Peter’s efforts. But when she is pushed to the emotional brink by an unexpected turn of events, she must finally face her past and begin to make peace with God, Parker, herself, and the little girl she lost. With fluid, poetic prose, fearless truth telling, and deep insight into the human condition, Adams offers a story about the resilience of the human spirit and how love can triumph over loss and regret.