The Prophets
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The Prophets
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Narrated by:
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Karen Chilton
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By:
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Robert Jones Jr.
About this listen
In this blinding debut, Robert Jones Jr blends the lyricism of Toni Morrison with the vivid prose of Zora Neale Hurston to characterise the forceful, enduring bond of love and what happens when brutality threatens the purest form of serenity.
The Halifax plantation is known as Empty by the slaves who work it under the pitiless gaze of its overseers and its owner, Massa Paul. Two young enslaved men, Samuel and Isaiah, dwell among the animals they keep in the barn, helping out in the fields when their day is done. But the barn is their haven, a space of radiance and love - away from the blistering sun and the cruelty of the toubabs - where they can be alone together.
But Amos - a fellow slave - has begun to direct suspicion towards the two men and their refusal to bend. Their flickering glances, unspoken words and wilful intention revealing a truth that threatens to rock the stability of the plantation. And preaching the words of Massa Paul's gospel, he betrays them.
The culminating chapters of The Prophets summon a choral voice of those who have suffered in silence, with blistering humanity, as the day of reckoning arrives at the Halifax plantation. Love, in all its permutations, is the discovery at the heart of Robert Jones Jr's breathtaking debut, The Prophets.
©2021 Robert Jones Jr. (P)2021 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"What a rare marvel this book is. The Prophets fashions an epic so rich in erudition, wisdom, clarity and power, so full of hard-earned yet too-brief joys, that it reaffirms for me literature's place as both balm and scalpel for the mind and soul. You can feel the decades of thinking embedded not only in these sentences but in how they question and build a world shamefully amputated from textbooks. Rarely is a book this finely wrought, the lives and histories it holds so tenderly felt, and rendered unforgettably true." (Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous)
"I've loved the writing of Robert Jones, Jr., for years, and The Prophets is an absolute triumph, a symphonic evocation of the heights and depths of pain, joy, and love." (R. O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries)
"In The Prophets, Robert Jones Jr.'s lens is at once epic and microscopic, equally capable of evoking historical crises and interpersonal ones. Painfully harsh and painfully tender, this inventive, kaleidoscopic love story is a marvel." (Helen Phillips, author of The Need)
What listeners say about The Prophets
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 28-02-22
Very hard to understand for non-native speakers
I had to switch to the written book because the story was to hard to follow on audible. I am not a native English speaker, there were a lot of unknown terms for me sprinkled throughout and a lot of characters, I just couldn’t follow along with the audio.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sally Margulies
- 15-02-21
a MUST read ....
A superbly executed book ..... simultaneously tragic and heartwarming, Robert Jones Jr. has written a tender novel filled with a history of which humanity should be ashamed.
Beautifully narrated with understanding and sensitivity.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Milie
- 12-01-22
Speechless
Ce livre est une oeuvre d'art.
Pas une lecture facile car le sujet ouvre des plaies à peine fermées. Néanmoins un livre à ajouter sur une bucket list.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Neil R Hargreaves
- 18-07-23
Great story
loved this brought home the reality of slavery in a different way. I found it hard to keep track of some characters but narration was really good
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