Narrated by Adenrele Ojo and Karen Chilton and Prentice Onayemi, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers has a runtime of 29 hrs 49 mins on Audible.
Publisher’s Summary
An instant New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today Bestseller • AN OPRAH BOOK CLUB SELECTION • ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2021 • WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: New York Times • Time • Washington Post • Oprah Daily • People • Boston Globe • BookPage • Booklist • Kirkus • Atlanta Journal-Constitution • Chicago Public Library
Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel • Longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction • Finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction • Nominee for the NAACP Image Award
“”Epic. . . . I was just enraptured by the lineage and the story of this modern African-American family. . . . I’ve never read anything quite like it. It just consumed me.”” —Oprah Winfrey
The NAACP Image Award-winning poet makes her fiction debut with this magisterial epic—an intimate yet sweeping novel with all the luminescence and force of Homegoing; Sing, Unburied, Sing; and The Water Dancer—that chronicles the journey of one American family, from the centuries of the colonial slave trade through the Civil War to our own tumultuous era.
The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the Problem of race in America, and what he called “Double Consciousness,” a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois’s words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans—the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendant of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers—Ailey carries Du Bois’s Problem on her shoulders.
Ailey is reared in the north in the City but spends summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, where her mother’s family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa in bondage. From an early age, Ailey fights a battle for belonging that’s made all the more difficult by a hovering trauma, as well as the whispers of women—her mother, Belle, her sister, Lydia, and a maternal line reaching back two centuries—that urge Ailey to succeed in their stead.
To come to terms with her own identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family’s past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors—Indigenous, Black, and white—in the deep South. In doing so Ailey must learn to embrace her full heritage, a legacy of oppression and resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story—and the song—of America itself.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Audiobook Details
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo and Karen Chilton and Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 29 hrs 49 mins
- Publisher: Harper
- Release year: 2021
- Audible category: Literature & Fiction / Genre Fiction / Coming of Age
Listener Ratings
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois holds an average listener rating of 4.7/5 from 3041 Audible ratings.
On Audible, ratings for this title break down into narration performance and story separately:
- Performance (narration): 4.8/5
- Story: 4.8/5
- 5-star ratings: 82% of all ratings
What Audible Listeners Are Saying
4/5 stars — “Detailed lineage”
Before you begin I would strongly suggest you print a copy of the lineage attachment. The stories intertwined nicely and the attachment helps you clearly see who is who. Ailey Garfield was an annoying protagonist even though she becomes the defining puzzle piece to make sense of all the connections her personality was beyond annoying. The book paints a no holds bar depiction of the impacts of colonization on African American history. It was a long read but overall it kept my attention and was good.— Divinely Ty, Audible listener
5/5 stars — “Read this book!!!”
I was so deeply moved by this book. From beginning to end, it transported me to a familiarity with love and pain. I recommend you read this book!— Amazon Customer, Audible listener
5/5 stars — “Ms. Honoree, it was an honor!”
I love the book, characters, stories, plots and everything else that was put into this.— isatta thorlu-bangura, Audible listener
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