She likes to ‘mother’ Samuel and Isaiah, sneaks extra bits of food for them from the Big House whenever she gets the chance, and gives them the benefit of her great wisdom, and special powers. Various characters, both the slaves and the slavers, are given a voice, describing their lives, and their feelings, and out of these many characters, it was Maggie that I personally found to be one of the most interesting. Two young gay men who fall in love, and love (forbidden or otherwise) is very hard to come by in a place that grinds down even the strongest of people. The storyline centres around Samuel and Isaiah, slaves at the cotton plantation. The Halifax cotton plantation in the Deep South (otherwise known as Empty) isn’t somewhere you’d choose to be, it’s where unfortunate people have ended up, having been taken from their homeland, sometimes even torn from a distraught mother’s arms. Even more remarkable, is the fact that this is the author’s debut novel! I’m sure we’ve all read books that feel really special, ones that leave a silence in their wake - the ones that stun with their cruelty and their beauty, all at the same time, so let me say right now, that in author Robert Jones Jr, there is a master wordsmith at work, taking the written word and transforming it into something magical. As tensions build and the weight of centuries-of ancestors and future generations to come-culminate 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. fiercely summons the voices of slaver and the enslaved alike to tell the story of these two men from Amos the preacher to the calculating slave-master himself to the long line of women that surround them, women who have carried the soul of the plantation on their shoulders. With a lyricism reminiscent of Toni Morrison, Robert Jones, Jr. 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. Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593085684Ī 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.

The prophets robert jones jr