The Warmth of Other Suns

The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

By: Isabel Wilkerson

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 22 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of Black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life.

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER
LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE WINNER
HEARTLAND AWARD WINNER
DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE FINALIST

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY

The New York Times • USA Today • O: The Oprah Magazine • Amazon • Publishers Weekly • Salon • Newsday • The Daily Beast

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY

The New Yorker • The Washington Post • The Economist • Boston Globe • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • Entertainment Weekly • Philadelphia Inquirer • The Guardian • The Seattle Times • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Christian Science Monitor

From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.

With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties.

Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous and exhausting cross-country trips by car and train and their new lives in colonies that grew into ghettos, as well as how they changed these cities with southern food, faith, and culture and improved them with discipline, drive, and hard work. Both a riveting microcosm and a major assessment, The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an “unrecognized immigration” within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is destined to become a classic.

©2010 Isabel Wilkerson (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“A landmark piece of nonfiction . . . sure to hold many surprises for readers of any race or experience….A mesmerizing book that warrants comparison to The Promised Land, Nicholas Lemann’s study of the Great Migration’s early phase, and Common Ground, J. Anthony Lukas’s great, close-range look at racial strife in Boston….[Wilkerson’s] closeness with, and profound affection for, her subjects reflect her deep immersion in their stories and allow the reader to share that connection.” (Janet Maslin, The New York Times)

“ The Warmth of Other Suns is a brilliant and stirring epic, the first book to cover the full half-century of the Great Migration… Wilkerson combines impressive research…with great narrative and literary power. Ms. Wilkerson does for the Great Migration what John Steinbeck did for the Okies in his fiction masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath; she humanizes history, giving it emotional and psychological depth.” (John Stauffer, Wall Street Journal)

" The Warmth of Other Suns is epic in its reach and in its structure. Told in a voice that echoes the magic cadences of Toni Morrison or the folk wisdom of Zora Neale Hurston’s collected oral histories, Wilkerson’s book pulls not just the expanse of the migration into focus but its overall impact on politics, literature, music, sports — in the nation and the world." (Lynell George, Los Angeles Times)

Wow! Every single American should read this!

I bought this about a year before I felt like listening to it. I wish I’d done it sooner. The stories are super compelling and there is not a dull or boring moment. The narrator is excellent. If you’re a white person like me who has ever thought, “I don’t know why black people are still bringing all this up!”, you should absolutely listen to this. I’ve found myself thinking about this book every single day for months. Every American should read this because it explains so, so much about racial and economic issues.

Worth reading

Overall I think this is definitely a worthwhile book my overall issue is had I know it were several stories intertwined I would if not purchased it I would prefer to tell a story and it’s entirety without telling part of the story they going to another then telling part of that story then going to another story only to return back to the first story tell part of that story then to the second story to again tell part of that is extremely confusing for me again it is worth the read and if you don’t mind jumping from story to story great if that bothers you just as it bothers me this is not the book for you

Great story; great narration

Incredibly interesting book. The narrator is the best I’ve heard on any Audible book so far.

Beautiful book!

I loved learning more about this part of our nation’s history and the effects it had on those who experienced it. Thank you!

Interesting and Information - Excellent!

Great fact based read. Would love to see this on the big screen. Excellent

Amazing!!!👏🏽

This simply is a must read for anyone who wants to get the authentic account of the migration from the South to the North. American History told through personal stories and experiences. Unmatched in its impact on me and what it made me feel and understand about America and it's sickness called racism and how it destroys anything good. Absolutely incredible writing and narration was Perfection. I can't recommend enough. 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥

Both raw and rich, ultimately rewarding

Raw in its details of the horrific treatment of these people, rich in its insights and revelations. Rewarding in every way. I will hold these stories with me as treasures always.

Learn, laugh, cry.

This is the most compelling, beautiful, horrifying, revelatory history book I’ve ever read. A must read for every American.

Beautifully told and read.
Thank you for the work and thought that went into creating this masterpiece.

A book about the great migration – GREAT!

There are many reasons to read or listen to this book, but one of the most important is to more deeply understand the seeds of some of the social issues, especially racial division, that we reckon with today in our country. As a white person, I am particularly grateful for the quality of Wilkerson’s work.

a huge undertaking

This was very well read. It took me a bit to get the 3 families straight as 2 of the main characters are named George, but the depth and breadth of these stories gave me such insight and taught me many things I did not know