The Prophets: a New York Times Bestseller

*A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*\r\n\r\nThis visionary and deeply evocative debut carves a radiant love story out of the bleakest of landscapes. Waterstones - Best Books to Look Out For in 2021\r\n\r\nAn Outstanding novel Guardian\r\nA lyrical, poetic novel Independent\r\nEpic in its scale Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf\r\nA rare marvel Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth Were Briefly Gorgeous\r\nMagisterial Courttia Newland, author of A River Called Time\r\nA spellbinding debut COSMO\r\nAmbitious and intense Vanity Fair\r\n\r\n\r\nIn this blinding debut, Robert Jones Jr. blends the lyricism of Toni Morrison with the vivid prose of Zora Neale Hurston to characterise the forceful, enduring bond of love, and what happens when brutality threatens the purest form of serenity. \r\n\r\nThe Halifax plantation is known as Empty by the slaves who work it under the pitiless gaze of its overseers and its owner, Massa Paul. Two young enslaved men, Samuel and Isaiah dwell among the animals they keep in the barn, helping out in the fields when their day is done. But the barn is their haven, a space of radiance and love - away from the blistering sun and the cruelty of the toubabs - where they can be alone together.\r\n\r\nBut, Amos - a fellow slave - has begun to direct suspicion towards the two men and their refusal to bend. Their flickering glances, unspoken words and wilful intention, revealing a truth that threatens to rock the stability of the plantation. And preaching the words of Massa Pauls gospel, he betrays them. \r\n\r\nThe culminating pages of The Prophets summon a choral voice of those who have suffered in silence, with blistering humanity, as the day of reckoning arrives at the Halifax plantation. Love, in all its permutations, is the discovery at the heart of Robert Jones Jrs breathtaking debut, The Prophets.