Chosen as a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Oprah’s Book Club, Elle, Reader’s Digest, The Rumpus, Kirkus Reviews, The Millions, Lit Hub, and more
“An inventive ode to self-determination and also a surrealistic vision of Black life as forged within the crucible of American history . . . [written in] lush, ornamental prose.” —The New Yorker
“Fans of The Underground Railroad, The Water Dancer, and Let Us Descend will devour this lyrical and surreal saga.” —Oprah Daily
From a writer of singular voice and vision, a mesmerizing epic that reimagines the past to explore the true nature of freedom
In this ingenious, sweeping novel, Phillip B. Williams introduces us to an enigmatic woman named Saint, a fearsome conjurer who, in the 1830s, annihilates plantations all over Arkansas to rescue the people enslaved there. She brings those she has freed to a haven of her own creation: a town just north of St. Louis, magically concealed from outsiders, named Ours.
It is in this miraculous place that Saint’s grand experiment—a truly secluded community where her people may flourish—takes root. But although Saint does her best to protect the inhabitants of Ours, over time, her conjuring and memories begin to betray her, leaving the town vulnerable to intrusions by newcomers with powers of their own. As the cracks in Saint’s creation are exposed, some begin to wonder whether the community’s safety might be yet another form of bondage.
Set over the course of four decades and steeped in a rich tradition of American literature informed by Black surrealism, mythology, and spirituality,
Ours is a stunning exploration of the possibilities and limitations of love and freedom by a writer of capacious vision and talent.
A novel that "opens in the year 1834 as a Black woman with magical powers named Saint founds a small settlement north of St. Louis with some slaves she has liberated, making the town invisible to the outside world by placing conjure stones around its perimeter. As the inhabitants of the town discover, however, Saint has provided them safety but not necessarily freedom. As the next four decades pass, more characters enter the novel, including two young boys who come of age in the settlement, a troubled young woman from New Orleans, a person of indeterminate sexuality who has the power to heal wounds and see what people have been through, and a set of twin girls that mysteriously appear in Saint's arms one day"--
