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IMANI ALL MINE
By Connie Porter
Houghton Mifflin, 212 pages, $23
Not many authors are capable of creating full characters based on current events, but novelist Connie Porter defies the artistic odds in this heartbreaking tale of a teenage, African-American, unwed mother living with her own mother in a poor, violent part of Buffalo. Scared but tenacious, Tasha Dawson handles a demanding daily routine that includes caring for her infant daughter and attending high school. But there’s a deeper story here, too, one that Porter reveals with astonishing subtlety and grace.