Love: A Novel

Toni Morrison’s novel Love was published in 2003. Like many of Morrison’s works, it is told in a nonlinear style and focuses on the lives and experiences of Black Americans. Love follows the lives of several women and their relationship to a charismatic and troubled hotelier, Bill Cosey. Morrison’s body of work is highly regarded by critics, and she is considered one of the foremost novelists of the Black experience. Love is her eighth novel and was generally well received by readers but was not as critically acclaimed as some of her other works, especially Beloved (1987). Love contains some supernatural elements, including a character who feels the presence of ghosts, but it is a work of literary fiction. Through multiple narrators, the novel recounts the life of Bill Cosey and the fight over his home and wealth after his death. His house is inhabited by his granddaughter, Christine, and his former child bride, Heed, each of whom believes that she is the rightful heir to the estate. Through their narration and the viewpoints of other characters, Morrison reveals the legacy of trauma in the women’s lives.

This study guide refers to the e-book version of the 2005 First Vintage International Edition.