summary:The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award–nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’s rap group Clipping.
Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.
Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.
Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.
Review: Definitely brilliant.
This is the kind of book I will always like to pick up from the shelf as a lifelong reader, and the kind of book I wish I had time to read in one seat. I love the way you intertwine history with magic and fantasy. I think a brilliant idea is the idea of a single person having to endure the traumatic memories of many. I love the definition of this culture of people capable of breathing underwater that came from the pregnant woman who was thrown off the slave ships (those slave owners didn't see it coming and I didn't see it either). When brand new ideas are very difficult to come by, it's a brand new concept. The one thing I would suggest is a different start to the novel. The beginning that you have right now seems a little unnatural, as though it were a little further into the novel. Perhaps you could have started it with her half asleep in the shark
infested waters.
Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.
Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.
Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.
Review: Definitely brilliant.
This is the kind of book I will always like to pick up from the shelf as a lifelong reader, and the kind of book I wish I had time to read in one seat. I love the way you intertwine history with magic and fantasy. I think a brilliant idea is the idea of a single person having to endure the traumatic memories of many. I love the definition of this culture of people capable of breathing underwater that came from the pregnant woman who was thrown off the slave ships (those slave owners didn't see it coming and I didn't see it either). When brand new ideas are very difficult to come by, it's a brand new concept. The one thing I would suggest is a different start to the novel. The beginning that you have right now seems a little unnatural, as though it were a little further into the novel. Perhaps you could have started it with her half asleep in the shark
infested waters.