Best Book of the Year NPR The Washington Post Boston Globe TIME USA Today Entertainment Weekly
Real Simple Parade Buzzfeed Electric Literature LitHub BookRiot PopSugar Goop Library Journal
BookBub KCRW Finalist for the National Book Award One of the New York Times Notable Books of
the Year One of the New York Times Best Historical Fiction of the Year Instant New York Times
Bestseller A singular and stunning debut 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. Isaiah was Samuel's and Samuel was Isaiah's. That was the way it was
since the beginning and the way it was to be until the end. 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. 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. Isaiah and Samuel's love which was once so simple is
seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation's harmony. With a lyricism reminiscent of
Toni Morrison Robert Jones Jr. fiercely summons the voices of slaver and enslaved alike
from Isaiah and Samuel to the calculating slave master to the long line of women that surround
them women who have carried the soul of the plantation on their shoulders. As tensions build
and the weight of centuries of ancestors and future generations to come culminates in a
climactic reckoning The Prophets fearlessly reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance but
is also shot through with hope beauty and truth portraying the enormous heroic power of
love.
