The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

(Paperback)

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THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
AN OPRAH BOOK CLUB PICK

Deeply moving Sarah Winman, author of Still Life
Remarkable Afua Hirsch, author of Brit(ish)
A sweeping epic Outstanding Daily Mail
Immerse yourself in a celebration of Black womanhood and an epic tale of the stories that span generations.

Ailey Pearl Garfield grows up between the City in the north and summers spent in her mothers small hometown of Chicasetta, Georgia. From an early age, she finds herself in a battle for belonging thats made all the more difficult by a hurt in her past, as well as the whispers of womenher mother, Belle, her sister, Lydia, and a maternal line reaching back two centuriesthat urge Ailey to succeed in their stead.

To come to terms with her identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her familys past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestorsIndigenous, Black, and whitein 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 storyand the songof America itself.

Mesmerising magnificent Independent

Astonishing A great work infused with love and honesty Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple

Gripping, gorgeous. A sweeping family saga that is also history at its most intimate and vital Stef Penney, author of The Tenderness of Wolves

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN LITERARY PRIZE

New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year Time 10 Best Books of the Year Washington Post 10 Best Books of the Year People 10 Best Books of the Year Booklist 10 Best First Novels of the Year

Reviews

Prepare to be wholly engrossed Phenomenal Observer

Utterly essential iNews

Intimate, considered, beautifully written and perceived, ambitious and ultimately satisfying. Outstanding Daily Mail

Astonishing I lived in this novel for three weeks. It is long. It is a journey. It is something so remarkable Im not sure we collectively ever even dreamed it. Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple

Beautifully, and traumatically, weaves a spell of a story about more than ten generations of an American familyindigenous, African and European Remarkable Afua Hirsch, author of Brit(ish)

Breath-taking A book I urge everyone to read. It is deeply moving and deeply informative. It is magnificent Sarah Winman, author of Still Life

Exceptional in the way it engages so deeply and emphatically with history Guardian

Epic and intimate an extraordinary achievement The Spectator

A work of profound beauty Irish Times

Extraordinary moving and evocative TLS

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is the kind of book that comes around only once a decade Simply magnificent Washington Post

Quite simply the best book that I have read in a very, very long time New York Times

Just as brilliant as it is necessary, just as intimate as it is expansive. An outstanding portrait of an American family and in turn, an outstanding portrait of America Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give

Masterful and stunning These Love Songs make for a frank, feminist, and unforgettable read Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

Author Bio

Honoree Fanonne Jeffers is a fiction writer, poet, and essayist. She is the author of five poetry collections, including The Age of Phillis, which won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry, was longlisted for a National Book Award, and was a finalist for the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry. She was a contributor to The Fire This Time, edited by Jesmyn Ward, and has been published in the Kenyon Review, the Iowa Review, and other literary magazines. Jeffers was elected into the American Antiquarian Society, whose members include fourteen US presidents, and is a critic at large for the Kenyon Review. She teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Oklahoma.