Literary Fiction · DarkA road trip to Parchman prison to pick up a father, with ghosts along for the ride
Sing, Unburied, Sing
by Jesmyn Ward
A mother and her two children drive to Parchman prison to bring a father home
Jojo is thirteen, and he helps raise his little sister Kayla while living with their grandparents in Bois Sauvage, Mississippi. When their father, Michael, is about to be released from Parchman prison, their mother Leonie, who struggles with drug addiction, decides to drive there to meet him. The two children come along, and Leonie also brings a friend. The story is told in turn by Jojo, Leonie and a ghost named Richie, who is tied to the grandfather's own time at Parchman.
More about this book
Who
Jojo, who is thirteen, his three-year-old sister Kayla, their mother Leonie, and their grandparents Pop and Mam. The ghost Richie is the third narrator.
World
The fictional town of Bois Sauvage in the Mississippi Delta, and the road to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
What makes it different
Three narrators take turns, and it is Ward's first novel with a supernatural element, with ghosts throughout.
Feel
Dark and lyrical. It won the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction, which made Ward the first woman to win the prize twice.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- Sing, Unburied, SingWikipedia