Slaveroad

"Master of language" (The New York Times) John Edgar Wideman uses his unique generational position to explore what he calls the "slaveroad," offering "a fresh perspective of slavery's impact and a confirmation of Wideman's exalted status in American letters" (New York magazine). John Edgar Wideman's Slaveroad is a groundbreaking work of "bruising candor and obsessive originality" (The Wall Street Journal). For centuries, the buying and selling of human beings was legal, and millions of Africans were kidnapped then forcibly transported across the Atlantic Ocean to serve as slaves. The enduring legacies of this slave road traffic--denied, unacknowledged, misunderstood, repressed--continue to poison the experiences and journeys of all Americans. In a section of "Slaveroad," called "Sheppard," William Henry Sheppard, a descendant of enslaved Virginians, travels back to Africa where he works as a missionary, converting Africans to Christianity alongside his Southern white colleague. Wideman imagines drinking afternoon tea with Lucy Gant Sheppard, William's wife, who was on her own slaveroad, as she experienced her husband's adultery with the African women he was trying to convert. In "Penn Station," Wideman's brother, after being confined forty-four years in prison, travels from Pittsburgh to New York. As Wideman awaits his brother, he asks, "How will I distinguish my brother from the dead. Dead passengers on the slaveroad." "A blend of memoir, fiction, history" (The Millions), Slaveroad is a book that will inform, challenge, and surprise Wideman fans as well as newcomers to his writing.

About the Author :
John Edgar Wideman's books include, among others, Look for Me and I'll Be Gone, You Made Me Love You, American Histories, Writing to Save a Life, Brothers and Keepers, Philadelphia Fire, Fatheralong, Hoop Roots, and Sent for You Yesterday. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award twice and has twice been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and National Book Award. He is a MacArthur Fellow and a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. He divides his time between New York and France.

Review :
Named a Best Book of the Year by TIME Magazine and Library Journal A New York Magazine's Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2024 A LitHub Most Anticipated Book of 2024 "Long heralded as one of literature's preeminent voices, John Edgar Wideman has faithfully chronicled the experiences of African Americans for almost 60 years...This book offers a fresh perspective of slavery's impact and a confirmation of Wideman's exalted status in American letters." --New York Magazine "Part autofiction, part history and part memoir, this book is an alchemy of genres. Wideman meditates on the word "slaveroad" as a metaphor--both temporal and corporeal--to examine its various meanings and its connection to the trans-Atlantic slave trade." --The New York Times "A work of bruising candor and obsessive originality, [Slaveroad] makes sense only outside the constraints of clock time, beyond trends or movements or even any contemporary notion of 'relevance'....the Nobel committee has not given an American fiction writer the literature prize for more than 30 years, but if its members are of a mind to, I hope they begin their considerations here." --Wall Street Journal "[Wideman] tells and retells powerful, miry tales in Slaveroad that are incantatory, transporting and incendiary." --New York Times Book Review "An agonized howl, a lament, an audacious quest to 'revisit and reify moments in my life that haunt and form me." --LA Times "A genre-defying and clear-eyed meditation on the roiling effects of transatlantic slavery on past and present lives, including [Wideman's] own...By mining the depths of our shared history across place and time in his impassioned "Slaveroad," Wideman invites us to come along with him on a journey (or a daring, self-excavating exercise?) both immeasurably rigorous and rewarding." --Minneapolis Star Tribune "A blend of memoir, fiction, and history that charts the 'slaveroad' that runs through American history, spanning the Atlantic slave trade to the criminal justice system...[for] fans of Clint Smith and Ta-Nehisi Coates." --The Millions