With many voices and perspectives, it needs the reader to concentrate to listen as closely to what isn’t said or written, as much as to what is uttered aloud or evident on the page, so that it’s a book that obfuscates and reveals in equal measure. Structurally it is complex and although the narrative is essentially linear with a pace that races along, there are layers of religion, history, myth and black culture outside my white, middle aged, British perspective and experience. I did not find The Prophets an easy book to read for several reasons. I think The Prophets might divide reader opinion and I have to admit that it took me a while to settle into the narrative style, but I ended up completely mesmerised. The Halifax slave plantation, Empty, seethes with emotions from love to hate, fear to triumph, guilt to joy so that Robert Jones Jr has woven a searing tale that unsettles, educates and leaves the reader reeling. Love, in all its permutations, is the discovery at the heart of Robert Jones Jr’s breathtaking debut, The Prophets. The 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. And preaching the words of Massa Paul’s gospel, he betrays them. Their flickering glances, unspoken words and wilful intention, revealing a truth that threatens to rock the stability of the plantation. 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.īut, Amos – a fellow slave – has begun to direct suspicion towards the two men and their refusal to bend. 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. The Halifax plantation is known as Empty by the slaves who work it under the pitiless gaze of its overseers and its owner, Massa Paul.

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. The Prophets was published by Quercus imprint Riverrun on 5th January 2020 and is available for purchase through the links here. I was delighted that The Prophets was included in a goody box I was sent prior to that event because I studied slavery and emancipation in the USA as part of my degree and am thrilled to share my review today. I first encountered The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr when I ‘attended’ The #Quercus2021 Word of Mouth event last October.

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