From the Bookshelf of La Crescent Public Library…

[close] As stunning as it is anguishing. Jesmyn Ward's newest novel "Let Us Descend" follows Annis, an enslaved woman as she is forced to march across state lines from the Georgia plantation where she was born to the Louisiana swamps.

Incredibly lyrical in its writing style, Ward brings the land to life as much as the characters. Alongside Annis for her forced journey is a spirit and ancestor who comes to help Annis, but it's a complicated relationship. And so, this beautiful book asks the question - how do we pave our own way forward? What do we owe our ancestors? Who is it who helps us survive?

~ Jess