Let Us Descend

'Gripping, mythic, bone-pulverising ... A spectacular achievement' ANTHONY DOERR 'Jesmyn Ward is one of the greatest writers of all time. And Let Us Descend, once again, proves it' JACQUELINE WOODSON 'Transcendent ... The best book I've read in years' LOUISE KENNEDY 'Stunning ... Will grip you from the first word to the last' NATHAN HARRIS ----------------------- The first weapon I ever held was my mother's hand. On a slave plantation in the Carolinas, Annis has survived in the light of her mother's resilience, comforted by stories of her African warrior grandmother. Everything she knows, she learned from her mother - how to fight, how to be strong, how to grow up in a world shrouded in darkness. When she is sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, Annis must venture onward through the rich but unforgiving landscapes of the American South alone: from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans, and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation. Searching for relief in memories of her mother, she opens herself to a world beyond her own, teeming with spirits of earth, water, history and myth. A reimagining of American slavery as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching, Let Us Descend offers a magnificent portrait of the strength of the human spirit and its ability to emerge from darkness into light. This is a story of beauty, love, rebirth and reclamation - a masterwork for the ages. Praise for Sing, Unburied, Sing 'A must' Margaret Atwood 'I am a huge fan of Jesmyn Ward's work, and this book proves that she is one of the most important writers in America today' Ann Patchett 'Ward is a lyrical, visceral storyteller' Daily Mail 'A visceral and intimate drama that plays out like a grand epic . Staggering' Marlon James 'A searing, urgent read' Celeste Ng

Jesmyn Ward received her MFA from the University of Michigan and is currently a professor of creative writing at Tulane University. She is the author of the novels Where the Line Bleeds and Salvage the Bones, which won the 2011 National Book Award, and Sing, Unburied, Sing, which won the 2017 National Book Award. She is also the editor of the anthology The Fire This Time and the author of the memoir Men We Reaped, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. From 2008-2010, Ward had a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. She was the John and Renée Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi for the 2010-2011 academic year. In 2016, the American Academy of Arts and Letters selected Ward for the Strauss Living Award. She lives in Mississippi.