Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation. Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader's guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long...

Mr. Renard returned wet and cold and slammed the door behind him. "I should give you a thrashing for coming down here," he raised his fist to Idy, "but lucky for you, I'm in a good mood." Idy pulled the little girl closer to her heart. "You'll take care of her," Mr. Renard said. "She's your responsibility, understand?" Idy nodded. So this was the delivery he had been referring to. This was the sort of help he wanted from her. Mr. Renard lowered his...