My Brotha My Brotha

About the Book

My Brotha My Brotha takes a close and intimate look at the rarely celebrated friendship of black men. The story centers around four black men living in Atlanta and the conflicts that they each face in their lives.

Terrell Johnson is a 33 year-old successful record producer who owns his own label. He has practically everything he needs and wants: a large home, millions in the bank, and Iona, his beautiful girlfriend. His problem is that he puts his music ahead of everything else in his life. Terrell is grateful for all of his blessings, but he sometimes forgets what’s important and starts to take things for granted. There are times when he gets so focused on his career that he unintentionally hurts the people he loves and creates rifts in the relationships that he has established. Eventually, his hard-edged determination to be the number one producer in the country does some seemingly irreparable damage to his relationship with Iona.

Lamont Miller is your above-average hard-working black man and single father. He’s a probation officer for the juvenile courts and he runs a mentoring program for wayward young boys called Black Men In Training (BMT). Lamont is a man with the utmost convictions and he’s always there for his friends. Of course, he has his share of drama as well. Having grown up without a father himself, Lamont has made it his mission to save as many fatherless young brothas as he can. Then one night he gets a phone call from his uncle in Chicago with some unnerving news. His father (who happens to be white) has been trying to get in touch with him. This opens a floodgate of unresolved emotions for Lamont as he wrestles with the decision to face the man who abandoned him and his mother all those years ago. His emotional turmoil is offset by his fledgling relationship with Antonia, a sweet and understanding sistah he meets one night off the Internet.

Alfonso "No relation to Isaac" Hayes is a self-proclaimed master of all he surveys. He’s Atlanta’s primetime deejay in the afternoons. Alfonso is handsome and suave and has spent years fine-tuning his powers of seduction over women. He takes the hearts of women and devours them with ease. He is currently playing bad boy to the bighearted and big "bodied" Monifah, who acknowledges that he’s a dog, but continues to see him anyway. There’s Katrina, who blindly gives her love to him even though he blatantly dismisses her and only calls her when he’s hungry. And then there’s the professional Angelle, who seems to be the only one with a level head. She doesn’t fall for Alfonso’s charm as quickly as he would like, but it only becomes a matter of time before she falls recklessly in love with him. Alfonso’s selfishness contradicts the love he has for his family (particularly his 7 year-old nephew) who suffers from seizures. Pretty soon Alfonso will soon realize that he is not the so-called Man.

Merlin Walker is a young man "existing" the best way he can. He’s only 24 and is already seeing a shrink. On the surface, Merlin has a lot going for him. He has a lucrative job as a desktop publisher for Tamar Magazine. But Merlin is bedeviled by his own life. He’s lonely and has no real friends to speak of and he’s HIV positive. Merlin was raised a Jehovah’s Witness but renounced that faith when he became of age. Because of this his father disowned him, having nothing to do with his son.

Merlin is a humble young man with a good heart. He already had an inferiority complex before he caught the virus through a heterosexual relationship, and now he feels completely worthless and inconsequential to everyone. Everyday is dreary for him (even the sunny ones) as he forces himself to go on and try to make something out of his life. It does become a bit easier for him when one day while picking up his HIV medication he meets Lark, an attractive young sistah, who eerily has more "in common" with him than Merlin could ever know.

About the Author

Donovan Brown is a newly published author living in Atlanta (The Dirty South). He spent seven years working on My Brotha My Brotha. He had to fine-tune his writing skills in order to produce his debut novel. Donovan is currently working on his own comic book and dreaming up interesting ideas for his second novel.