“This is memory.” This is the thread that runs throughout Another Brooklyn, National Book Award-winner Jacqueline Woodson’s first adult book in 20 years, published last month to considerable critical acclaim. It is the oft-repeated phrase of a young girl, now a woman, looking back on her childhood in Brooklyn in the 1970s. And in just a slim 170 pages, Woodson creates lifetimes.

That world is the world of August, who is swept up in memories of her years in Brooklyn after the funeral of her father and a chance encounter with a girlhood friend on the New York subway. However, it is also the story of the girls August grew up with–Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi.

The girls meet after August moves to Brooklyn from Tennessee with her father and brother, and in them, August finds a sisterhood, a group of friends to fall back on, to walk the streets with arm-in-arm, ready to take on the world. But as the girls discover, growing up and finding one’s place in the world is no easy feat, and there can be a lot of heartache and pain along the way.

One of the most fascinating and enticing things about the book is how the plot is revealed slowly, little by little, making the characters’ lives resemble pictures that the reader must fill in gradually as the book continues. Woodson is a master of this, drawing back the curtains in just such a way that it is almost impossible to stop reading, and almost every chapter contains a new revelation. It drew me completely into August’s world, as did her descriptions of Brooklyn itself, bringing the city streets alive with the boys playing in the streets and the DJs hosting parties in the park during the summer. Brooklyn comes to life in these pages, and it only makes the book more captivating.

Woodson treats her characters with the same care as the plot, welcoming the reader to see each girl for the complicated, unique girl-becoming-woman she is. They are all confused, trying to cope with the stresses of growing up, but also their own people, trying to figure it out in their own way. They each have their own story, as well, and their own secret pains. But they also have each other, at least for awhile.

Despite the masterfully done plot and characters, the aspect of Another Brooklyn that most made me fall head over heels in love with it was the writing. It doesn’t take more than the first page to notice how well Woodson’s writing flows, how close it is to poetry without actually being it. She has a way of putting things that is full of emotion and at the same time extremely well-composed, making the words so much more than ink on a page. She captures the pain, sadness, and heartbreak that runs throughout the book, as well as all the other complex emotions that come with growing up. It’s one of the most memorable things about the novel, and I could have gone on reading forever.

Another Brooklyn is a story of girlhood, friendship, and growing up, but takes these common themes and transforms them into so much more. Every page carries deep emotional weight, painting August and her girls’ lives in a series of images and sensations, reflections and memories. Because that’s what the book truly is, just as August repeats throughout its pages–this is memory. And it’s also one of the most memorable books of the year.