All I Need to Get By

Crita has come a long way from her small-town Ohio roots. A successful tax accountant living in Manhattan, she finally has the independent life that she dreamed of as a girl. However, with one fateful phone call, Crita's life is turned upside down. Suddenly back home, living under her parent's roof, Crita must confront two powerful men from her childhood--Link, her destructive brother with whom she shares a dark secret, and Tree, her first love. Facing memories that she would rather forget, Crita struggles to reconcile a tumultuous past with a calmer, quieter present. Needing help along the way, she may even learn to lean on Tree, the only man who could ever give her "what she needs to get by." In this riveting debut novel, Sophfronia Scott speaks for anyone that knows just how hard it is to go back home again.

Sophfronia Scott proudly hails from Toni Morrison's hometown of Lorain, Ohio. She is the third of seven children born to her steelworker father and stay-at-home mother. After graduating from Harvard in 1988, Sophfronia went to work for Time magazine where, in early 1990, she and a colleague conceived Time's "Twentysomething" cover story and became the magazine's youngest cover story writers. Sophfronia is the former StyleWatch editor at People magazine and the former Senior Entertainment editor at TeenPeople. Sophfronia resides with her husband in Manhattan. All I Need to Get By is her first novel.

Sophfronia Scott's writing is assured and the emotions are palpable. She's a writer to watch."
--Benilde Little, author of Acting Out and Good Hair

"Sophfronia Scott has written a wonderfully warm and wise portrait of family relationships, responsibilities, and going home again that mark her as a writer of depth as well as talent."
--Gail Buckley, author of The Hornes: an American Family and American Patriots: the Black Military Experience from the Revolution to Desert Storm.

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading All I Need to Get By. It's a terrific book--beautifully written, really well-drawn characters, emotionally resonant. It's also filled with great integrity--not a false note in there. I'm really proud of you, as I'm sure all your family and friends are, and hope this is the first of many novels to come.
--Susan Toepfer, former executive editor at People

"Sophfronia Scott's words bubble over with love, anger, weakness, strength and the grace note of patience. Each chapter is a road map; each character is a tree, a landmark on a road that winds towards home, in all its shuttered complexity."
--Veronica Chambers, author of Mama's Girl and Having It All?

"Lorain, Ohio, is familiar territory to readers of Toni Morrison, but Sophfronia Scott makes it her own. All I Need to Get By is a stunning debut, a story of family and memory, and the stories we tell about both in order to "get by." The novel is equal parts profundity, humor, and grace, and its author promises to take a place among the best writers of her generation."
--Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Harvard University

"Sophfronia Scott's debut novel is wonderful. What is more heartwarming--and heartwrenching--than the story of a family torn apart, then woven together? Bravo!"
--Soledad O'Brien