Let Us Descend
SKU
9761982104506
ISBN
9781982104504

Let Us Descend

$17.99 $12.59
Author
Ward, Jesmyn

OPRAHā€™S BOOK CLUB PICK ā€¢ Instant New York Times Bestseller ā€¢ Named one of the best books of 2023 by The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The Boston Globe, Time, The New Yorker, and more.

ā€œNothing short of epic, magical, and intensely moving.ā€ ā€”Vogue ā€¢ ā€œA novel of triumph.ā€ ā€”The Washington Post ā€¢ ā€œHarrowing, immersive, and other-worldly.ā€ ā€”People

From ā€œone of Americaā€™s finest living writersā€ (San Francisco Chronicle) and ā€œheir apparent to Toni Morrisonā€ (LitHub)ā€”comes a haunting masterpiece about an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War thatā€™s destined to become a classic.

Let Us Descend describes a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation. A journey that is as beautifully rendered as it is heart wrenching, the novel is ā€œ[t]he literary equivalent of an open wound from which poetry poursā€ (NPR).

Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the readerā€™s guide. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with spirits: of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take. While Annis leads readers through the descent, hers is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation.

From one of the most singularly brilliant and beloved writers of her generation, this ā€œ[s]earing and lyricalā€¦raw, transcendent, and ultimately hopefulā€ (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) novel inscribes Black American grief and joy into the very landā€”the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South. Let Us Descend is Jesmyn Wardā€™s most magnificent novel yet.

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