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Spirits, Ancestors, Survival, Trauma, Courage, Healing

New novel by Jesmyn Ward: "Let Us Descend"

· enslavement,slavery,Jesmyn ward,shamanism in fiction,tragedy fiction

One of my favorite writers has a new book out, written in the depths of her grief from losing her husband from covid and during the Black Lives Matter global protests:

From the publisher:

 

"Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.

" Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’s guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with spirits: of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take. While Ward leads readers through the descent, this, her fourth novel, is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation."