Libertie: A Times Book of the Month and Roxane Gay's Book Club May Pick

Review Greenidge mixes elements of both conventional historical fiction and magical realism into a satisfying and emotionally powerful brew ― Sunday Times Kaitlyn Greenidge is good on the contradictions of freedom, and the persistent, sour legacy of slavery, but it is the mother-daughter relationship that makes this novel dazzle ― The Times A soaring exploration of what 'freedom' truly means. Libertie is an elegantly layered, beautifully rendered tour de force that is not to be missed -- Roxane Gay A feat of monumental thematic imagination ... Greenidge both mines history and transcends time -- Margaret Wilkerson Sexton ― New York Times Book Review Greenidge (We Love You, Charlie Freeman) delivers another genius work of radical historical fiction ... This pièce de résistance is so immaculately orchestrated that each character, each setting, and each sentence sings. ― Publishers Weekly, starred and boxed review With Libertie ... Greenidge is making a stylistic leap with an intricately researched and lushly imagined coming-of-age story set in 19th-century Brooklyn and Jacmel, Haiti ... Both epic and intimate -- Alexandra Alter ― The New York Times Sweeping, engrossing -- Oprahmag.com In this singular novel, Kaitlyn Greenidge confronts the anonymizing forces of history with her formidable gifts. Libertie is a glorious, piercing song for the ages- fierce, brilliant, and utterly free. -- Brandon Taylor, author of Real Life Greenidge follows up her highly successful debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman, with the heart-wrenching fictional story of the young daughter of one of the first female physicians in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, a stunning look at what freedom really means -- Adrienne Gaffney ― The New York Times Pure brilliance. So much will be written about Kaitlyn Greenidge's Libertie--how it blends history and magic into a new kind of telling, how it spins the past to draw deft circles around our present--but none of it will measure up to the singular joy of reading this book. -- Mira Jacob, author of Good Talk This is one of the most thoughtful and amazingly beautiful books I've read all year. Kaitlyn Greenidge is a master storyteller. -- Jacqueline Woodson, author of Red at the Bone I want to say that Kaitlyn Greenidge's Libertie is a glorious diasporic literary song, but the novel is so much more than that. A book so deeply invested in the politics and place of silence is one of the most melodious books I've read in decades. The ambition in Libertie is only exceeded by Greenidge's skill. This is it. -- Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy Fiercely compelling, and told in a singular, lyrical voice, Libertie is a novel that lives in a specific historical time-the Reconstruction Era-but offers insight into the very modern struggles that still exist surrounding identity, family, love, and freedom ... This is a novel of struggle and triumph, exhaustion and perseverance, rooted in history, but transcendent of it; another masterwork by Kaitlyn Greenidge. ― Refinery29 Kaitlyn Greenidge has built a lush, imaginative novel, as dark and beautiful as its namesake yet as relevant today as during its 19th-century setting. I didn't want it to end, and I fear that any attempt to render its complexity with brevity equals a failure to capture the book's vast depth and its conversation with so many other important historical and literary works. A page turner and a gorgeous winner. -- Nafissa Thompson-Spires, author of Heads of the Colored People The voice that fuels this novel is rooted in the body and rises toward myth, forged of history, ocean salt, iron, and hope. With Libertie, Kaitlyn Greenidge adds an indelible new sound to American literature, and confirms her status as one of our most gifted young writers. -- Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You and Cleanness This is a historical novel, a magical novel, a familial novel, a Bildungsroman--a work that defies simple categorization. The complexities herein signi