Christine Pride and Jo Piazza on ‘We Are Not Like Them’

Authors Christine Pride and Jo Piazza join us to talk about their new novel, We Are Not Like Them, which tells the story of two women of different races who find themselves on opposite sides of a tragedy in Philadelphia. A police shooting of an unarmed Black teenager divides their community and tests their decades of close friendship. Pride, who is Black, and Piazza, who is white, discuss their new book, the complicated issues it raises about race and how the story came from honest conversations the two close friends had in real life.

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The Washington Post: ‘We Are Not Like Them’ continues an important conversation. We shouldn’t look away. “The heartbreak of the prologue was all too familiar: an unarmed Black teen, shot dead by a White police officer. And that is only the beginning of this emotional literary roller coaster.”

Bustle: Is There A Better Way To Write About Interracial Friendship? “How are [Riley and Jen] going to be really good friends if they’re not talking about race? Why do they think they’re such good friends if they’re not talking about race?”

People Magazine: Authors Say Writing Novel Inspired by Their Own Interracial Friendship Felt ‘Impossible’ at Times “Writing a novel is hard. Writing a novel with another person is fraught. Writing a novel about race with a person of another race is both of those things and often feels impossible.”