Robert Jones Jr. says his debut novel, The Prophets, came to him in whispers from people whose stories haven't been told, and whose history has often been wiped from the record: Black queer people who were enslaved in America. It is a love story set inside a tragedy, the story of Samuel and Isaiah, two Black men enslaved on a plantation in Mississippi who find love with each other.
"You know, a psychologist might say that's your own conscience speaking to you, but I wanted to be a little bit more spiritual in my thinking about it," Jones says. "And imagine that it was my ancestors sort of pushing me toward writing this story, toward being a witness to their testimonies that have not made it into the official record."
Make the jump here to listen to the full interview
And via Amazon:
"A new kind of epic...A grand achievement...While The Prophets' dreamy realism recalls the work of Toni Morrison...its penetrating focus on social dynamics stands out more singularly." --Entertainment Weekly
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 the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they
tended to the animals, but also to 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 slave--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
slaver and enslaved alike, from Isaiah and Samuel to the calculating
slave master 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 masterfully
reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance, but is also shot through
with hope, beauty, and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of
love.
