The Literaryswag Book Club Pick for January 2023: THE PROPHETS
It's an honor to help kick off a new year in reading!
Happy Sunday, Family!
I’m happy to announce that the Literaryswag Book Club has chosen The Prophets as its January 2023 pick.
Here is what Literaryswag founder Yahdon Israel had to say about it:
“I wanted to begin the year with a work of fiction that was both sprawling in its storytelling but managed to capture the intimacy of the characters in it. A work of fiction that uses the institution of American slavery to illustrate that its violences extended beyond the harm caused to the body.
This being said, The Prophets is a subversive love story that centers the relationship of Isaiah and Samuel, two Black men living in slavery who, while surviving the brutalities of those who lack the moral imagination to see them as human, also have to negotiate how to protect their humanity in order to love themselves and each other.”
Previous selections have included: Be Not Afraid of Love: Lessons on Fear, Intimacy, and Connection by Mimi Zhu, Post Traumatic Hood Disorder by David Tomas Martinez, Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop by Danyel Smith, How Music Got Free: A Story of Obsession and Invention by Stephen Witt, and Neruda on the Park by Cleyvis Natera.
The discussion of The Prophets will be Literaryswag’s first in-person club meeting since the start of the pandemic—at a new location to boot! And I will be in attendance.
For details on how to participate in this conversation and gathering, visit the Literaryswag website to read the FAQs, fill out the membership form, and subscribe.
ABOUT LITERARYSWAG: “The Literaryswag Book Club is a Brooklyn-based book club and subscription service that meets every last Wednesday of the month. Founded by Yahdon Israel in 2015, the book club started as collaborative event with the independent bookstore, The Strand, to create a space that focused on readers, and allowed them to engage in open and honest discussions about literature.
Whereas most book clubs are started among friends and people usually considered to be ‘like-minded,’ Yahdon wanted to create a community where people with various experiences, ideas, and cultural backgrounds, could talk to and come to understand one another through a mutual love of books and a respect for the people who read them.”
I hope y’all come through. I really want to see your faces. :)
Until then, be safe!
Blessings upon blessings,
Robert