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The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois  By  cover art

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

By: Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Karen Chilton, Prentice Onayemi
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Publisher's summary

A top 10 New York Times best seller

An Oprah book club pick

One of Barack Obama’s favourite books of the year

A Washington Post best audiobook of 2021

A Glamour best audiobook of 2021

An Audiofile best audiobook of 2021

Immerse yourself in a celebration of Black womanhood and an epic tale of the stories that span generations.

A breath-taking debut novel that chronicles the journey of generations of one American family, from the centuries of the colonial slave trade to our own tumultuous era.

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

To come to terms with her identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family’s past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors—Indigenous, Black, and white—in 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 story—and the song—of America itself.

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

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

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

"Deeply moving.... it is magnificent." (Sarah Winman, author of Still Life)

"An exceptional, absolutely transfixing audio version of a monumental work." (Washington Post)

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