The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
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A Kirkus "Best Book of the 21st Century"
An instant New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today Bestseller - AN OPRAH BOOK CLUB SELECTION - ONE OF THE ATLANTIC'S "GREAT AMERICAN NOVELS" - BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2021 - WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: New York Times - Time - Washington Post - Oprah Daily - People - Boston Globe - BookPage - Booklist - Kirkus - Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Chicago Public Library
Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel - Longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction - Finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction - Nominee for the NAACP Image Award
"Epic. . . . I was just enraptured by the lineage and the story of this modern African-American family. . . . I've never read anything quite like it. It just consumed me." --Oprah Winfrey
The NAACP Image Award-winning poet makes her fiction debut with this magisterial epic--an intimate yet sweeping novel with all the luminescence and force of Homegoing; Sing, Unburied, Sing; and The Water Dancer--that chronicles the journey of one American family, from the centuries of the colonial slave trade through the Civil War to our own tumultuous era.
The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the Problem of race in America, and what he called "Double Consciousness," a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois's words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans--the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendant of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers--Ailey carries Du Bois's Problem on her shoulders.
Ailey is reared in the north in the City but spends summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, where her mother's family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa in bondage. From an early age, Ailey fights a battle for belonging that's made all the more difficult by a hovering trauma, as well as the whispers of women--her mother, Belle, her sister, Lydia, and a maternal line reaching back two centuries--that urge Ailey to succeed in their stead.
To come to terms with her own identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family's past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors--Indigenous, Black, and white--in the deep South. In doing so Ailey must learn to embrace her full heritage, a legacy of oppression and resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story--and the song--of America itself.
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Book Details
- ISBN
- 9780062942937
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Authors
- Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
- Publisher
- Harper
- Published Date
- August 24, 2021
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 816
- Physical Info
- 2.3 in H x 9.1 in L x 6.4 in W (2.14 lb)
Just as Genesis begins with the formation of Mother Earth and her origin of humans, so does this journey begins with a mother who delivers a child into a world, a world shaped by greed that consumes the best of humanity over centuries, eroding, reshaping, limiting, and harming.This book is like reading the family tree of ancestry unfolding generation by generation. Only difficulty is remembering all the branches and divisions.
This book! As a southern black girl, I could relate to so much of this book. It is emotional, angering, thought provoking, and so much more on so many levels. I saw myself in those characters so many times. The food, the landmarks, the summers, the relatives, the college, the young adult experiences, wow! Such a well written book. I will probably read it a second time.
Long hard emotionally triggering read but should be a requirement for every high school student. Beautifully written will become a classic one day.
I absolutely loved this book. The stories included throughout the novel were moving and enlighten. It encourages me to dive deeper into my own family history. Love it please read!!!
This book was amazing to me. Emotionally heavy, some great laughing points. But overall rich of history. It took me a year to finish because it’s not a book you can just fly through. Some parts are so heavy I needed a break lol. But nonetheless, I am happy I saw it through. The ending was well worth the emotional labor. The story rounded out so well. A great way to end BHM
