LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN`S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018 WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2017 ONE OF BARACK OBAMA`S BEST BOOKS OF 2017 SELECTED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW STATESMAN, THE FINANCIAL TIMES, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, TIME & THE BBC Finalist for the PEN/ Faulkner Award for Fiction Finalist for the Kirkus Prize Finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award ` This wrenching new novel by Jesmyn Ward digs deep into the not-buried heart of the American nightmare. A must` Margaret Atwood A powerfully alive novel haunted by ghosts; a road trip where people can go but they can never leave; a visceral & intimate drama that plays out like a grand epic, Sing, Unburied, Sing is staggering` Marlon James, Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2015 An intimate portrait of a family & an epic tale of hope & struggle, Sing, Unburied, Sing examines the ugly truths at the heart of the American story & the power
- & limitations
- of family bonds. Jojo is thirteen years old & trying to understand what it means to be a man. His mother, Leonie, is in constant conflict with herself & those around her. She is black & her children`s father is white. Embattled in ways that reflect the brutal reality of her circumstances, she wants to be a better mother, but can`t put her children above her own needs, especially her drug use. When the children`s father is released from prison, Leonie packs her kids & a friend into her car & drives north to the heart of Mississippi & Parchman Farm, the State Penitentiary. At Parchman, there is another boy, the ghost of a dead inmate who carries all of the ugly history of the South with him in his wandering. He too has something to teach Jojo about fathers & sons, about legacies, about violence, about love. Rich with Ward`s distinctive, lyrical language, Sing, Unburied, Sing brings the archetypal road novel into rural twenty-first century America. It is a majestic new work from an extraordinary & singular author.