Celebrate the release of the paperback of The Prophets with author Robert Jones, Jr., in conversation with Torrey Peters on Friday, February 11 at 7 PM with Brookline Booksmith!
Copies of The Prophets ordered on the registration page will receive a signed bookplate (while supplies last)!
It is a singular and stunning debut novel about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence.
Isaiah was Samuel’s, and Samuel was Isaiah’s. That was the way it was since the beginning and how it was until the end. In the barn, they tended to the animals and each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man—a fellow enslaved person—seeks to gain favor by preaching the master’s gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own. Isaiah and Samuel’s love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation’s harmony.
With a lyricism reminiscent of Toni Morrison, Robert Jones, Jr. fiercely summons the voices of enslavers and enslaved alike, from Isaiah and Samuel to the calculating enslaver to the long line of women that surround them, women who have carried the soul of the plantation on their shoulders. As tensions build and the weight of centuries—of ancestors and future generations to come—culminates in a climactic reckoning, The Prophets fearlessly reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance but is also shot through with hope and beauty and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of love.
Robert Jones, Jr. is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Prophets, a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction. He has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Essence, and The Paris Review. He is the creator and curator of the social-justice, social-media community Son of Baldwin, with over 288,000 followers across platforms.
Moderator Torrey Peters is the author of the novellas Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones and The Masker, available for free on her website. She holds an MFA from the University of Iowa and an MA in Comparative Literature from Dartmouth. She grew up in Chicago and now lives in Brooklyn. Detransition, Baby is her first novel.
