2022 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Fiction
A NPR BOOKS WE LOVE 2021 Selection
“This story shimmers. Shakes. Wails. Moves to rhythms long forgotten . . . in many ways: holy. [A] masterpiece.”— The New York Times Book Review
“A legendary African American novelist returns with her first novel in 22 years, an epic adventure of enchantment, enslavement, and the pursuit of knowledge in 17th-century Brazil . . . . Those familiar with Corregidora (1975) and Eva’s Man (1976) will not be surprised by the sustained intensity of both imagery and tone. There is also sheer wonder, insightful compassion, and droll wit to be found among the book’s riches. Jones seems to have come through a life as tumultuous as her heroine’s with her storytelling gifts not only intact, but enhanced and enriching.”
— Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
“Jones makes a strong return with a mesmerizing epic of late seventeenth-century Brazil. . . . Jones’ storytelling exerts a powerful pull, and readers will achieve complete immersion in a setting in which African and Indigenous cultures are memorably delineated. Through richly woven prose, Almeyda’s journey compels reflection on how freedom must always be defended and how women bear extra societal burdens. Mystical sequences give the plot additional depth and texture. . . . [A] superb reclamation of the historical novel.”
— Booklist
“An epic and inventive saga . . . a triumphant return.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Palmares is that rare thing, a life’s work . . . . Unlike anything else that will be published this year.”
—Wall Street Journal
“No novel about any black woman could ever be the same after this.”
—Toni Morrison, on reading the manuscript for Corregidora
“Gayl Jones’s work represents a watershed in American literature. From a literary standpoint, her form is impeccable; from a historical standpoint, she stands at the very cutting edge of understanding the modern world, and as a Black woman writer, her truth-telling, filled with beauty, tragedy, humor, and incisiveness, is unmatched. Jones is a writer’s writer, and her influence is found everywhere.”
—Imani Perry, author of Looking for Lorraine and Breathe
“Jones had a marked effect . . . on an entire generation of writers, whether they realized it or not.”
—Calvin Baker, The Atlantic
“Jones’s great achievement is to reckon with both history and interiority, and to collapse the boundary between them.”
—Anna Wiener, The New Yorker
American—not just black—scene. Her novels are genuinely imaginative creations.”
—Darryl Pinckney, The New Republic