OPRAH’ S BOOK CLUB PICK • Instant New York Times Bestseller • Named one of the best books of 2023 by The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The Boston Globe, Time, The New Yorker, and more.
“ Nothing short of epic, magical, and intensely moving. ” — Vogue • “ A novel of triumph. ” — The Washington Post • “ Harrowing, immersive, and other-worldly. ” — People
From “ one of America’ s finest living writers” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “ heir apparent to Toni Morrison” (LitHub)— comes a haunting masterpiece about an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War that’ 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 “ [t]he literary equivalent of an open wound from which poetry pours” (NPR).
Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’ 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 “ [s]earing and lyrical… raw, transcendent, and ultimately hopeful” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) novel inscribes Black American grief and joy into the very land— the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South. Let Us Descend is Jesmyn Ward’ s most magnificent novel yet.
