How Far to the Promised Land

One Black Family's Story of Hope and Survival in the American South

By: Esau McCaulley

Narrated by: Esau McCaulley

From the New York Times contributing opinion writer and award-winning author of Reading While Black, a riveting intergenerational account of his family’s search for home and hope

“Powerful . . . McCaulley uses examples of his own family’s stories of survival over time to remind readers that some paths to the promised land have detours along the way.”—The Root

A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

For much of his life, Esau McCaulley was taught to see himself as an exception: someone who, through hard work, faith, and determination, overcame childhood poverty, anti-Black racism, and an absent father to earn a job as a university professor and a life in the middle class.

But that narrative was called into question one night, when McCaulley answered the phone and learned that his father—whose absence defined his upbringing—died in a car crash. McCaulley was being asked to deliver his father’s eulogy, to make sense of his complicated legacy in a country that only accepts Black men on the condition that they are exceptional, hardworking, perfect.

The resulting effort sent McCaulley back through his family history, seeking to understand the community that shaped him. In these pages, we meet his great-grandmother Sophia, a tenant farmer born with the gift of prophecy who scraped together a life in Jim Crow Alabama; his mother, Laurie, who raised four kids alone in an era when single Black mothers were demonized as “welfare queens”; and a cast of family, friends, and neighbors who won small victories in a world built to swallow Black lives. With profound honesty and compassion, he raises questions that implicate us all: What does each person’s struggle to build a life teach us about what we owe each other? About what it means to be human?

How Far to the Promised Land is a thrilling and tender epic about being Black in America. It’s a book that questions our too-simple narratives about poverty and upward mobility; a book in which the people normally written out of the American Dream are given voice.

Critic reviews

“With uncompromising honesty and deep introspection, McCaulley complicates the narrative of ‘overcoming racism and poverty as a hero.’ . . . Powerful and necessary.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A thoughtfully written book that offers heartfelt, empathetic lessons without preaching to the choir.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Esau McCaulley’s riveting memoir holds together tensions that many of us pry apart: systemic injustice and personal responsibility, accountability and forgiveness, honesty and sympathy. This book is prophetic without being preachy, and heartwarming without being cloying. . . . A triumph of storytelling.”—Tish Harrison Warren, author of Liturgy of the Ordinary

“A riveting book that invites you into the personal journey of one of the finest writers alive today.”—Beth Moore, president of Living Proof Ministries and bestselling author of All My Knotted-Up Life

“In these pages are words that redeem time and refresh the human spirit. . . . The timeliness of McCaulley’s honest, hope-filled story—told with depth, precision, and purpose—feels like a balm for the weary soul.”—Charlie Dates, senior pastor of Salem Baptist and Progressive Baptist

“As soon as I finished, I wanted to reread. McCaulley is already recognized as a great scholar and essayist, but this is his best writing yet. The storytelling here is both poetic and prophetic, free of both superficiality and cynicism. Read this book and the words will linger with you.”—Russell Moore, editor in chief of Christianity Today

“McCaulley gives his readers an offering to peer into the window of his soul and that of his southern Black family. It is a story of the convergence of structural racism and the grace of God, which carries them on as they traverse the rugged terrain of life to the promised land.”—Ekemini Uwan, public theologian and NAACP Image Award–nominated co-author of Truth’s Table

An excellent story of Redemption

Esau has woven a captivating story of God at work in the life of a family. Heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. He speaks about race in a way that we can all see ourselves in the story and points us all towards something transcendent.

Beautiful story

Beautiful story of God’s redemptive work in the lives of one family. May we all look at our loved ones with the grace God extends us.

God breaks through the patterns of the world.

How a black man was able to avoid the mistakes of his father. How Hod reached out to the author and guided him through life.

The preeminence of faith and love.

A great book that helps one to understand and feel with those of another background.

Awesome story

Loved this book. 2nd book I’ve read by this author. He is a great communicator!

Eye opening with enjoyment and self reflection

I appreciate hearing this story. It helped me to process and bring light to my own upbringing. Appreciate the understanding offered through this book.

I loved this book!

I’ve been deeply impacted by Esau’s interviews on podcasts and the few New York Times columns that I’ve been able to read of his over the last couple of years. This book is so deeply moving. I shed lots of tears. I can’t wait to share it with others.

Powerful & Authentic

With grace and authenticity Esau McCaulley shares his story and that of the family that shaped him, offering a glimpse into a world that some of us have never known and will never know. With riveting prose, he invites his audience to a deeper understanding of what it means to be Black in America. With deep wisdom born of hurt, struggle, and love, Dr. McCaulley reminds his audience that people are complex, each with our own stories, and that none of us are beyond the reach of the God of the Exodus.

well done

This is a well written story about growing up Black in the south. Esau does an amazing job to help his readers empathize with individuals that having no transgression other than being born Black. He does a great job to describe the systems that one must overcome in order to exist. I am thankful for the way he narrates his own story. Esau is an amazing story teller and theologian.

A real, honest, painful, joyful, generous sharing of a black family’s stories

This book wove together the author’s family story in a way that reminded me that we all have these complex family lineages filled with possibility for redemption and hope right alongside the pain. It was an honest glimpse into the life of a black family in Alabama that I am grateful for him sharing—it has deepened my understanding of what black families in the US south have gone and are going through. And I’m so glad Esau McCaulley narrated his own book. It added so much realness and connection.