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

An Oprah’s Book Club Novel

By: Honoree Fanonne Jeffers

Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo, Karen Chilton, Prentice Onayemi

Length: 29 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

AN OPRAH BOOK CLUB SELECTION

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION • A FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE FOR FICTION • SHORTLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE • LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE

A New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year • A Time Must-Read Book of the Year • A Washington Post 10 Best Books of the Year • An Oprah Daily Top 20 Books of the Year • A BookPage Best Fiction Book of the Year • A Booklist 10 Best First Novels of the Year • A Kirkus 100 Best Novels of the Year • A Parade Pick • A Chicago Public Library Top 10 Best Books of the Year

An Instant Washington Post, USA Today, and Indie Bestseller

"Epic…. I was just enraptured by the lineage and the story of this modern African-American family…. A combination of historical and modern story—I’ve never read anything quite like it. It just consumed me." —Oprah Winfrey, Oprah Book Club Pick

An Indie Next Pick • A New York Times Book Everyone Will Be Talking About • A People 5 Best Books of the Summer • A Good Morning America 15 Summer Book Club Picks • An Essence Best Book of the Summer • A Washington Post 10 Books of the Month • A CNN Best Book of the Month • A Time 11 Best Books of the Month • A Ms. Most Anticipated Book of the Year • A Goodreads Most Anticipated Book of the Year • A BookPage Writer to Watch • A USA Today Book Not to Miss • A Chicago Tribune Summer Must-Read • An Observer Best Summer Book • A Millions Most Anticipated Book • A Ms. Book of the Month • A Well-Read Black Girl Book Club Pick • A BiblioLifestyle Most Anticipated Literary Book of the Summer • A Deep South Best Book of the Summer • Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award

The 2020 NAACP Image Award-winning poet makes her fiction debut with this National Book Award-longlisted, magisterial epic—an intimate yet sweeping novel with all the luminescence and force of Homegoing; Sing, Unburied, Sing; and The Water Dancer—that chronicles the journey of one American family, from the centuries of the colonial slave trade through the Civil War to our own tumultuous era.

The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the problem of race in America, and what he called “Double Consciousness,” a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois’s words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans—the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendant of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers—Ailey carries Du Bois’s problem on her shoulders.

Ailey is reared in the north in the City but spends summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, where her mother’s family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa in bondage. From an early age, Ailey fights a battle for belonging that’s made all the more difficult by a hovering trauma, 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 own 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.

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

©2021 Honoree Fanonne Jeffers (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

A must read

Such a powerful story - a story that depicts the suffering of African Americans particularly the woman so well it gives you chills. A story that is relatable stil in this day of how black woman are treated and the pain they feel. How they are told to suffer in silence and keep it moving. This book is now a favorite of mine and I can’t wait to ré listen again and again.

Excellent storytelling

A compelling book with so many relatable storylines. I listened to each chapter with anticipation of what was to come.

not your vacation beach book...better than that!!

Very well written story. Despite its length it is very fictional/informative. Hard to put down.

Great book!!!

I am so enamored with this book. I fell in love with some of the characters. I despised others. I could not stop listening.

The question is the point

Folks get mighty offended when some raise certain uncomfortable questions. The author asks I'm afraid. The reading was wonderfully done as well. Well done!

10 Stars!

Fantastic, essential, powerful. I listened to the audio and it was superb — highly recommended. I got a little lost once or twice because I didn’t refer to the family tree chart that appears at the beginning of the print book, but it *is* available in a PDF with the audio version if anyone wants it as reference. Not looking at it didn’t bother me at all.

One of the best...

Loved this book. It kept me engaged and I found the array of characters fascinating and totally relatable. Fond of historical depth in the story. It left me wanting more . A wonderful read.

Absolutely Beautiful

This book is absolutely beautiful and perfect in all the right ways. You will not be disappointed.

An Important Story

I had a love/hate relationships with this book. While the story is so important to our national story, it was very long and, it felt, often unnecessarily so. While it is necessarily epic, it is unnecessarily explicit. While it's important to explore the long-term effects of child sexual abuse, repeated depictions of that abuse are unnecessary. While female sexuality and empowerment are important, repeated explicit encounters felt gratuitous and redundant. The book needed an editor. We could have given this important story and its characters their due of the book were, say, 2/3 its length.

this book was amazing

and now that's its done I'm sad. I feel like I knew the characters personally