Jesmyn Ward’s Let Us Descend is an excellent historical-fiction novel sprinkled with supernatural parts that pulls readers into the lifetime of a slave on an extended, painful journey.

And, whereas correct, this description fails to speak the depth of this novel in addition to the multiplicity of layers wherein it really works. Angry, stunning, uncooked, visceral, and heartfelt, Let Us Descend is the literary equal of an open wound from which poetry pours. This novel is a factor you may’t assist however to really feel, a story that hurts to learn however that additionally fills you with hope. Ward’s work at all times calls for consideration, however this e book makes it inconceivable to look away even in its ugliest, most agonizing moments.

Annis is the daughter of an enslaved lady who was raped by her enslaver. Her life is tough, however as soon as she’s separated from her mom after which offered by her personal father, issues worsen. Annis struggles by means of countless miles on her strategy to being offered. Tied to different girls and strolling subsequent to chained males, Annis’ ft bleed as she’s pressured to stroll for whole days with out meals and cross rivers together with her palms tied. From the Carolinas, by means of fields and swamps, all the way in which to New Orleans, Annis walks and walks, witnessing brutality day by day and preventing to maintain her humanity intact.

Through her harrowing journey, Annis turns inward — counting on the reminiscences of her mom and the tales she instructed her about her warrior grandmother — to search out consolation, to search out the power to maintain going. That introspection pierces the veil and shortly Annis begins speaking with spirits and receives common visits from Aza, her ancestor, who additionally used to go to her mom. As she begins her new life at a special place, her understanding of the world and the forces that have an effect on it adjustments and Annis learns to hearken to the spirit world. A story that plunges headfirst into the evils of slavery, injustice, and abuse, Let Us Descend additionally morphs right into a story of queer love, rebirth, and the significance of reminiscence.

Let Us Descend is an uncomfortable learn. Physical, psychological, and sexual violence had been constants for slaves, and Ward would not shrink back from any of it. In truth, Annis’ months-long journey is recounted in exhausting element. At first, all of it seems like an excessive amount of, just like the novel might’ve been edited to maneuver quicker by means of her journey. But over time Ward’s intent is revealed and readers come to grasp that the small print are there as a result of they had been a part of the story of 1000’s of souls, and in the event that they needed to get by means of it, the least we will do is examine it, really feel their ache, develop extra empathy, and ensure we struggle the remnants of that therapy wherever we encounter them. Despite these dreadful particulars, this isn’t only a narrative that forces readers to take a look at this nation’s ugly previous and face the lingering results of its historical past; it is also a narrative about perseverance and the ability of the religious world.

“The Water is all spirit. Before you and me, before anything, there was the Water. We come from the Water. We return to the Water. Only the Water knows all, but the Water does not speak.” Those phrases from Aza exemplify the attractive phrase puzzles the spirit world provides Annis. Ward’s lyricism is used to nice impact, particularly within the novel’s final third, and the phrases of the spirit world take middle stage. Let Us Descend, which will get its title from Dante’s Inferno (Dante makes a number of appearances and is known as “the Italian”) echoes that work in that it reveals its characters’ descent into hell. However, not like Dante’s masterpiece, Ward additionally presents a map to crawl again out.

Let Us Descend is as upsetting as it’s stunning and mandatory. Ward’s writing about slavery would not add something new to the dialogue, however her distinctive mixture of historic fiction, supernatural parts, and lovely prose helps her carve out a particular place in literature that offers with the topic. It’s uncommon to have a historic novel that additionally feels well timed, however this story pulls it off. Readers will stroll with Annis, see the world by means of her eyes, and really feel the ache of all the things she experiences — however that journey, that struggling, will give them readability and assist them develop a deeper understanding of affection, grief, and the realities of slavery. Ward has taken Black historical past in a time of racial and political turmoil and used it to scream about grief and injustice, but in addition about magnificence, queer love, historical past, dedication, and pleasure.

Gabino Iglesias is an creator, e book reviewer and professor dwelling in Austin, Texas. Find him on X, previously Twitter, at @Gabino_Iglesias.