Happy Land

By: Dolen Perkins-Valdez

'It's time we name our kingdom!' he shouted over the wind. 'I say we call this place Happy Land. If this ain't the land of happy people, then where is it? Why not create our heaven right here on earth?'

In the hills of Appalachia, there once existed a land ruled by a king and queen. Inspired by memories of African kingdoms, a community of formerly enslaved men and women grasped freedom on mountain land they owned. But freedom doesn't always last forever . . .

Today, after years of silence, Nikki has been summoned to North Carolina by her estranged grandmother. But instead of revealing answers about their recent past, Mother Rita tells Nikki a shocking story about her great-great-great grandmother, Queen Luella, and the very land they stand on. Land Mother Rita insists must be protected at all costs.

As Nikki learns about the Kingdom of the Happy Land, she comes to realise how much of her identity is rooted in this family land, and how much they stand to lose if it, like so much else, is taken from them. It's time to reclaim what's theirs.

©2025 Dolen Perkins-Valdez (P)2025 Orion Publishing Group Limited

Critic reviews

What a story! Happy Land is an exhilarating tale of perseverance, identity, and love that echoes across generations. This story of formerly enslaved families in the Blue Ridge Mountains who built a community against all odds will stay with me for a long time' (Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of BLACK CAKE)

'Picture a time when a kingdom existed inside the confines of the Carolinas - a time when freedpeople were royalty. What if that was your history, instead of the trauma of enslavement and generational poverty? As Dolen Perkins-Valdez says in this astonishing, historical-based novel - a family tree isn't just something you draw on paper. It's only when you're rooted in the soil that your family once inhabited that your imagination can brush the sky' (Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of BY ANY OTHER NAME)