First published 2024
John Edgar Wideman creates a layered narrative that spans continents and centuries, connecting the Atlantic crossing of enslaved Africans to the ongoing journeys of Black Americans. In one section, he imagines afternoon tea with Lucy Gant Sheppard, wife of missionary William Henry Sheppard. William, descended from enslaved Virginians, has returned to Africa to convert locals to Christianity alongside his white Southern colleague. Lucy faces her own struggles as William commits adultery with the African women he seeks to convert. Another section follows Wideman's brother traveling from Pittsburgh to New York after forty-four years in prison. Wideman waits at Penn Station, wondering how he will recognize his brother among what he calls the dead passengers. The author weaves together memoir, history, and imagination to explore how slavery's separations and wounds continue across generations. He traces the many roads that carry Black Americans through physical, social, and psychological terrain, showing how past and present intersect in stories told, retold, and untold.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, african-american, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-saga, historical-narrative
Setting: Africa, Pittsburgh, New York
Period: 19th-century, 20th-century
224 pages · Hardcover · Scribner
Content warnings: racism, slavery