02317cam a2200325 i 4500 1075503594 TxAuBib 20231214120000.0 231011s2023||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u bl2023169576 9781982104498 198210449X TxAuBib rda Ward, Jesmyn, author. Let us descend : a novel / Jesmyn Ward. First Scribner hardcover edition. New York : Scribner, 2023. 305 pages ; 22 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier “‘Let us descend,’ the poet now began, ‘and enter this blind world.’” —Inferno, Dante Alighieri 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. From one of the most singularly brilliant and beloved writers of her generation, this miracle of a novel inscribes Black American grief and joy into the very land—the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South. Let Us Descend is Jesmyn Ward’s most magnificent novel yet, a masterwork for the ages. 20231214. Women slaves Fiction. Mothers and daughters Fiction. Racially mixed people Fiction. Slavery United States Fiction. Historical fiction. lcgft Novels.