87 New Historical Fiction Books Hitting Shelves This Year

Jesmyn Ward's "Let Us Descend" narrates the horrors of slavery through the eyes of one enslaved girl, Annis. Fathered by a slave owner and sold away by him, Annis embarks on a dangerous and terrifying journey through the world of slavery, plantations, and the unforgiving landscapes of the American South. As she is pushed to her physical limits, Annis takes comfort within, where a world beyond is filled with spirits of ancestors and of nature itself, and where she can cling to precious memories of her mother and stories of her grandmother, an African warrior whose strength she must reclaim to emerge from this hellish descent.

Release date: Oct. 24