Böcker av Jesmyn Ward

From Jesmyn Ward - the two-time National Book Award winner - comes a haunting masterpiece, sure to be an instant classic, about an enslaved girl in the years before the Civil War. 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.

'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

WINNER of the NATIONAL BOOK AWARD and A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A finalist for the Kirkus Prize, Andrew Carnegie Medal, Aspen Words Literary Prize, and a New York Times bestseller, this majestic, stirring, and widely praised novel from two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward, the story of a family on a journey through rural Mississippi, is a ';tour de force' (O, The Oprah Magazine) and a timeless work of fiction that is destined to become a classic.Jesmyn Ward's historic second National Book Awardwinner is ';perfectly poised for the moment' (The New York Times), an intimate portrait of three generations of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle. ';Ward's writing throbs with life, grief, and love this book is the kind that makes you ache to return to it' (Buzzfeed). Jojo is thirteen years old and trying to understand what it means to be a man. He doesn't lack in fathers to study, chief among them his Black grandfather, Pop. But there are other men who complicate his understanding: his absent White father, Michael, who is being released from prison; his absent White grandfather, Big Joseph, who won't acknowledge his existence; and the memories of his dead uncle, Given, who died as a teenager. His mother, Leonie, is an inconsistent presence in his and his toddler sister's lives. She is an imperfect mother in constant conflict with herself and those around her. She is Black and her children's father is White. She wants to be a better mother but can't put her children above her own needs, especially her drug use. Simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she's high, Leonie is embattled in ways that reflect the brutal reality of her circumstances. When the children's father is released from prison, Leonie packs her kids and a friend into her car and drives north to the heart of Mississippi and Parchman Farm, the State Penitentiary. At Parchman, there is another thirteen-year-old boy, the ghost of a dead inmate who carries all of the ugly history of the South with him in his wandering. He too has something to teach Jojo about fathers and sons, about legacies, about violence, about love. Rich with Ward's distinctive, lyrical language, Sing, Unburied, Sing is a majestic and unforgettable family story and ';an odyssey through rural Mississippi's past and present' (The Philadelphia Inquirer).

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

As an adult, I learned this: persist. Work hard. Face rejection, weather the setbacks, until you meet the gatekeeper who will open a door for you. Jesmyn Ward grew up in a poor, rural community in Mississippi. Today, as the first woman to win the National Book Award twice, she is celebrated as one of America's greatest living writers.Navigate Your Stars is a stirring reflection on the value of hard work and the importance of respect for oneself and others. First delivered as a 2018 commencement address at Tulane University, it captures Ward's inimitable voice as she reflects on her experiences as a Southern black woman, addressing the themes of grit, adversity and the importance of family bonds.Beautifully illustrated in full colour, this is a meditative and profound book that will inspire all readers preparing for the next chapter in their lives.

The first novel from two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward, a timeless Southern fable of brotherly love and familial conflictJoshua and Christophe are twins, raised by a blind grandmother and a large extended family in a rural town on Mississippi's Gulf Coast. Over the course of a single, life-changing summer, as they struggle to find work and contend with the reappearance of their parents - Cille, who left town for a better job, and Sandman, a dangerous addict - the brothers are forced into a series of decisions that will ultimately damn or save them. A delicate and closely observed portrait of fraternal love and strife and the bonds that can sustain and torment us, Where the Line Bleeds marks the beginning of Jesmyn Ward's extraordinary career in fiction.