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

A TOP TEN NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
AN OPRAH BOOK CLUB PICK
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR
‘Astonishing… A great work infused with love and honesty’ Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple

‘Deeply moving… it is magnificent’ Sarah Winman, author of Still Life

Ailey Pearl Garfield grows up between the City in the north and summers spent in her mother’s small hometown of Chicasetta, Georgia. From an early age, she finds herself in a battle for belonging that’s made all the more difficult by a hurt in her past, 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 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.

‘Mesmerising… magnificent’ Independent

‘Astonishing… A great work infused with love and honesty’ Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple

‘Gripping, gorgeous. A sweeping family saga that is also history at its most intimate and vital’ Stef Penney, author of The Tenderness of Wolves

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION • SHORTLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE • LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN LITERARY PRIZE