Rickey Fayne has a debut novel coming out this summer and is ready to take the literary world by storm.
Hell three timeshistorical fiction novel by a newcomer author, is out May 13, 2025 — and PEOPLE can exclusively reveal its cover.
The upcoming book will follow “a black family in West Tennessee as they are repeatedly visited by the Devil,” according to the official synopsis.
“Yetunde wakes up on a slave ship bound for the United States with the ghost of his dead sister as his only company. Desperate to survive the hell that awaits her at their destination, Yetunde finds help in an unexpected form – the devil himself,” the synopsis teases. “The devil, looking for a way to re-enter heaven’s pearly gates, decides to prove himself to an indifferent God by to protect Yetunde and give her some of his supernatural power in return, Yetunde makes an incredible sacrifice.”
‘The Devil Three Times’, a novel by Rickey Fayne.
Little, Brown
The book will span eight generations and 175 years, well beyond Yetunde’s “mortal age”, so the Devil will also visit many of her descendants during “their darkest hour of need”. Among her offspring are Lucille, a woman considered White, who risk becoming a 20th-century Cain and Abel, and James, who struggles to make sense of the past while struggling to keep his family together.
“The devil offers each of them his own version of salvation, all the while asking himself: can he save himself?” asks the official description.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Elin Hilderbrand calls writing Academy With daughter Shelby ‘Highlight of my career’ — see the cover! (Exclusive)
“I have always been fascinated by the way people tell stories,” the author explained in a press release shared with PEOPLE. “What their choice of words, rhythm and points of emphasis reveal about who they are, what they’ve been through, what they value.”
“Each member of my family had their own way of putting into words what they saw and knew,” Fayne continued. “I can still hear the sound of the tree falling that broke my great uncle’s back. Feel the shock my grandmother, who was a sleepwalker, felt when she woke up one night in the woods. Look at the shotgun my great grandfather brandished when the lynch mob tried to take his son. A story in which only my father, who was a boy at the time, could find wit.”
A new memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert All the way to the river He’s investigating ‘The Darker Side of Spiritual, Emotional and Physical Hunger’ (Exclusive)
The author described his debut as “a story about family, the transformative power of love and the meaning of freedom”.
Hell three times hits bookshelves on May 13 and is available for pre-order now, wherever books are sold.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education