Men We Reaped

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‘A brutal, moving memoir … Anyone who emerges from America’s black working-class youth with words as fine as Ward’s deserves a hearing’ – Guardian’Raw, beautiful and dangerous’ – New York Times Book Review’Lavishly endowed with literary craft and hard-earned wisdom’ – TimeThe beautiful, haunting memoir from Jesmyn Ward, the first woman to win the National Book Award twice’And then we heard the rain falling and that was the blood falling; and when we came to get in the crops, it was dead men that we reaped’ – Harriet TubmanJesmyn Ward’s acclaimed memoir shines a light on the community she comes from in the small town of DeLisle, Mississippi, a place of quiet beauty and fierce attachment. Here, in the space of four years, she lost five young black men dear to her, including her beloved brother – to accidents, murder and suicide. Their deaths were seemingly unconnected, yet their lives had been connected by identity and place. As Jesmyn dealt with these losses, she came to a staggering truth: the fates of these young men were predetermined by who they were and where they were from, because racism and economic struggle breed a certain kind of bad luck.

The agonising reality brought Jesmyn to write, at last, their true stories and her own.

‘Acute and often beautiful’ – Financial Times’Haunting’ – Laurie Penny, New Statesman Books of the Year’Elegiac, rage-filled, and uncommonly brave’ – Vogue’A brilliant book about beauty and death’ – Los Angeles Times’Essential’ – San Francisco Chronicle’Burns with brilliance’ – Harper’s Bazaar’Unvarnished and penetrating’ – Elle