There are a number of secondary characters on the plantation whose POV we hear from as well-including the plantation owner, his wife, and their son. We meet Samuel and Isaiah and quickly understand that they share a deep bond. said he wrote it because he saw that there had been no novels about Black queer enslaved people, and quotes Toni Morrison: “if you cannot find the book you wish to read, you must write it.” Jones has written a tour de force, and while it’s not quite a 5 for me, it’s incredibly moving and heartbreaking. What I love about this book is that Robert Jones, Jr. I am extremely delayed in reviewing this, and I also did read it quite slowly. Trigger Warnings: brutally realistic depictions of the Middle Passage and slavery, the n-word 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. 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.
Isaiah and Samuel's love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation's harmony. 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. 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.
That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. Isaiah was Samuel's and Samuel was Isaiah's.
Publisher Synopsis: 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.
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