Oprah Winfrey has chosen Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward (Scribner) as her 103rd Oprah's Book Club pick. The novel chronicles the trials of Annis, an enslaved teenager, on her grueling journey from a North Carolina plantation to her subsequent sale in New Orleans. Winfrey, who announced her choice yesterday on CBS Mornings, said the book will leave an impact, adding: "We witness how both the mind and spirit are vital to her survival."
Ward is the author of three previous novels--two of which have won the National Book Award (Salvage the Bones in 2011 and Sing, Unburied, Sing in 2017). A fan of her writing for years, Winfrey has read all of Ward's books and called her latest "a vital work for our culture."
Ward commented: "Ms. Oprah Winfrey's work has loomed large in my life since I was a child. As I grew older and came into my voice as a novelist, I was deeply moved by Ms. Winfrey's ability to challenge herself creatively and her unabashed championing of literature and the written word. I tried to emulate all of this in my own life, and over the last 20 years, I worked my way through rejection and revision to now, when I find myself in a momentous point in my career. I am deeply grateful to Ms. Winfrey for choosing Let Us Descend for her Book Club, and I am so honored to contribute to the discussion at the heart of her club, which over the years, has considered what it means to be American, to be human, to be alive, to hope and yearn, with each outing."