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

An Oprah’s Book Club Novel

De: Honoree Fanonne Jeffers

Narrado por: Adenrele Ojo, Karen Chilton, Prentice Onayemi

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

Detailed lineage

Before you begin I would strongly suggest you print a copy of the lineage attachment. The stories intertwined nicely and the attachment helps you clearly see who is who. Ailey Garfield was an annoying protagonist even though she becomes the defining puzzle piece to make sense of all the connections her personality was beyond annoying. The book paints a no holds bar depiction of the impacts of colonization on African American history. It was a long read but overall it kept my attention and was good.

Read this book!!!

I was so deeply moved by this book. From beginning to end, it transported me to a familiarity with love and pain. I recommend you read this book!

Ms. Honoree, it was an honor!

I love the book, characters, stories, plots and everything else that was put into this.

Painful, Powerful, and Possible

This novel is braided brilliantly. At first, it seems to be multiple stories juxtaposed against each other, but by the end of the novel all the separate strands have been neatly joined.
The novel includes significant pain, but the survivors always demonstrate how we can live past pain. The light on seldom recognized groups of people illuminates truths and raises questions that stick with the reader/listener.
Finally, the voices that animate this rich novel render clearly all the characters who strum the notes of these love songs. This is a novel for reading and re-reading/ listening and listening again. What a gift for our minds!!!

A Must

Stunning immersive. painfully provocative. A true saga of women & actual feminism. Both in design, layout & character development as well as storyline- this old white woman reader/listener was completely enveloped in its power.

Amazing!

This story was beautifully written. The book takes hold of you. I felt myself being transformed into the main character on the quest for family.history.

Amazing Epic Spiritual Historical Experience!!

A spiritual experience of our history our people. So moving, so many amazingly crafted words, I can’t even find the words to express the beauty of this novel. It’s was a spiritual experience.

Intense

Such an excellent experience that projected and absorbed me in the nuisances of the storyline. Thank you so much for the narration and journey.

The Past Repeats Itself

As I read this book the narrator please me back in time. That I felt every pain these sisters endured from their grandfather. I came from the Cherokee Indian tribe hurt even more to know mistreatment of Indians and blacks us so badly along with black race, An it is even going on 2021 the way uniform police officers kill our black fathers and sons.

Best Historical Fiction I’ve Read

I loved this book—the story, history, characters, and all of the voices. It was long, but held my attention on every single page. Kudos to Honoree Fanonne Jeffers and the awesome team that read this novel. Magnificent!!!!