The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers' debut novel, longlisted for a National Book Award, is a penetrating epic that traces the tale of one American family from the colonial slave trade to the current day. The goal of Ailey Pearl Garfield, a Black lady coming of age in the 1980s and 1990s who is anxious to learn more about her family history, is at the heart of the film. What Ailey discovers causes her to question her identity, especially when she learns truths about her ancestors. Jeffers provides a detailed picture of class, colorism, and intergenerational trauma in 800 engrossing pages. It's an excruciating story handled with depth and compassion, one that sheds light on the price of survival.

W. E. B. Du Bois, the renowned scholar, once wrote on the American race problem and what he termed "Double Consciousness", a sensitivity that every African American requires in order to exist. Ailey Pearl Garfield has known Du Bois' words since she was a toddler. Ailey carries Du Bois's Problem on her shoulders, bearing the names of two tough Black Americans: the acclaimed choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendent of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers.

Detailed information:
Author: Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Link to read: goodreads.com/book/show/51183428-the-love-songs-of-w-e-b-du-bois