Overview
John Edgar Widemanās āslaveroadā is a palimpsest of physical, social, and psychological terrain, the great expanse to which he writes in this groundbreaking work that unsettles the boundaries of memoir, history, and fiction. The slaveroad begins with the Atlantic Ocean, across which enslaved Africans were carried, but the term comes to encompass the journeys and experiences of Black Americans since then and the many insidious ways that slavery separates, wounds, and persists.
In a section of āSlaveroad,ā called āSheppardā, William Henry Sheppard, a descendant of enslaved Virginians, travels back to Africa where he works as a missionary, converting Africans to Christianity alongside his Southern white colleague. Wideman imagines drinking afternoon tea with Lucy Gant Sheppard, Williamās wife, who was on her own slaveroad, as she experienced her husbandās adultery with the African women he was trying to convert. In āPenn Station,ā Widemanās brother, after being confined forty-four years in prison, travels from Pittsburgh to New York. As Wideman awaits his brother, he asks, āHow will I distinguish my brother from the dead. Dead passengers on the slaveroad.ā
An impassioned, searching work, Slaveroad is one manās reckoning with a uniquely American lineage and the ways that the past haunts the present: āItās here. Now. Where we are. What we are. A story compounded of stories told, retold, untold, not told.ā
This book title, Slaveroad, ISBN: 9781668057216, by John Edgar Wideman, published by Scribner (October 8, 2024) is available in hardcover. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
Unlike Amazon and other retailers who may also offer Slaveroad books on their website, we specialize in large quantities and provide personal service, from trusted, experienced, friendly people in Portland, Oregon. We offer a Price Match Guarantee, and QuickQuote form, to make purchasing quick and easy.
Prefer to work with a human being when you order Slaveroad books in bulk? Our Book Specialists are standing by Monday-Friday 8-5 PST, ready to help!