Literary fiction
The Prophets
We love supporting debut authors. Congrats, Robert Jones Jr, on your first book!
Get your first book for $5 with code PETALS at checkout.
Join today!We love supporting debut authors. Congrats, Robert Jones Jr, on your first book!
An endangered love between two enslaved men is at the heart of this expansive, devastating, and lyrical debut.
400+ pages
LGBTQ+ themes
Critically acclaimed
Graphic violence
Isaiah was Samuel’s and Samuel was Isaiah’s. That was the way it was since the beginning, and the way it was to be until the end. In the barn they tended to the animals, but also to each other, transforming the hollowed-out shed into a place of human refuge, a source of intimacy and hope in a world ruled by vicious masters. But when an older man—a fellow slave—seeks to gain favor by preaching the master’s gospel on the plantation, the enslaved begin to turn on their own. Isaiah and Samuel’s love, which was once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation’s harmony.
With a lyricism reminiscent of Toni Morrison, Robert Jones, Jr. fiercely summons the voices of slaver and the enslaved alike to tell the story of these two men; from Amos the preacher to the calculating slave-master himself to the long line of women that surround them, women who have carried the soul of the plantation on their shoulders. As tensions build and the weight of centuries—of ancestors and future generations to come—culminate in a climactic reckoning, The Prophets masterfully reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance, but is also shot through with hope, beauty, and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of love.
I crave books that are simultaneously attentive to the big things and the little things. Books that explore the deepest questions about life and love and death and history and identity—and that animate these questions by way of infinitesimal human interactions. A surprising gesture, a subtle moment of duplicity, an unlikely flash of kindness, conjured so vividly that it haunts me long after I finish reading. In The Prophets, Robert Jones, Jr., nimbly navigates this delicate interplay between the epic and the microscopic, between historical crises and interpersonal ones.
This is a devastating book, an evocation of and reckoning with the deep stain of slavery. But there is, at the center of The Prophets, amid the grief and horror, a refuge: the relationship between Isaiah and Samuel, two young men enslaved on the Mississippi plantation known as Empty. Their passion for each other, the dignity they bestow on each other, the small world they create and protect together, forms the core of the book. Swirling around this powerful love story is a kaleidoscopic array of characters; we enter the worlds and minds of the enslaved, the enslavers, the female kings and male wives in Kosongo territory in the ancestral homeland.
In this awe-inspiring debut, Robert Jones, Jr.,’s inventiveness with form and language is matched by his profound emotional acuity. The Prophets is a courageous book, unflinching in its examination of the most painful and most tender aspects of life and history.
Jill K.
Wadmalaw island , SC
“Fierceness should always be tempered with kindness...” “There could never be peace, only moments in which war wasn’t overwhelming.” “My son, some people’s hearts, they just...beat the wrong way.”
Maren V.
Salt Lake City, UT
Exquisitely written, clearly meant to be sat in and taken in with reverence. It was heavy, difficult, and painful, in a really important kind if way. I didn’t “enjoy” it, but I’m glad to have read it.
Lauren G.
Revloc, PA
At first I was very worried about the writing style (I'm picky I suppose ????♀️) but as soon as I got attached to the characters, I really struggled to put it down! Robert Jones Jr is a talented man
Michael S.
New York, NY
“The Prophets” was such a powerful, heartbreaking read about two enslaved men in finding comfort in each other and a commentary about our country’s history of destroying what it doesn’t understand.
Victoria L.
Brick , NJ
This is a book I never would have chosen on my own but am so grateful to have read. I learned so much and felt other’s pain so deeply. This contains parts of history we aren’t taught, but need to know