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

Alice Walker, renowned author of "The Color Purple," praised it as "Astonishing... A great work infused with love and honesty." Sarah Winman, known for "Still Life," described it as "Deeply moving... magnificent." Afua Hirsch, who wrote "Brit(ish)," hailed it as "A remarkable work." Oprah Winfrey, through her Oprah Book Club, deemed it "Epic... It just consumed me." The "Washington Post" referred to it as "The kind of book that comes around only once a decade."

This breathtaking debut novel narrates the journey of several generations within one American family, beginning from the era of the colonial slave trade to our modern, turbulent times. W.E.B. Du Bois, a revered scholar, once articulated the issue of race in America and described the concept of 'Double Consciousness,' a crucial awareness for African Americans to endure. Ailey Pearl Garfield has been attuned to Du Bois's insights since she was young.

From her early years, Ailey struggles to find her place, complicated by ongoing trauma and the persistent encouragement of women—her mother, sister, and a maternal lineage stretching back two hundred years—to achieve what they could not. Determined, Ailey embarks on a quest through her family's history, discovering the harrowing stories of her many ancestors, who are Indigenous, Black, and white, in the deep South. She must come to terms with embracing her entire heritage—a continuum of oppression and defiance, bondage and liberation, cruelty and resilience—which forms the very essence and narrative of America.

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers's "The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois" is a sweeping, captivating, and deeply affecting work, poised to become a much-discussed title this year. The novel has been longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction, shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and longlisted for the Aspen Literary Prize. It has also been recognized as one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the "New York Times," "Time," "Washington Post," "People," and "Booklist's" Ten Best First Novels of the Year.