All are welcome and encouraged to join us for an engaging hour online with New York Times bestselling author Robert Jones, Jr., as he discusses his debut and award-winning novel, The Prophets.

The Prophets is a story of love. Isaiah was Samuel’s, and Samuel was Isaiah’s. That was how it was from the beginning and how 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, once so simple, is seen as sinful and a clear danger to the plantation’s harmony.

Robert Jones, Jr. fiercely summons the voices of slaver and enslaved alike. As tensions build and the weight of centuries—of ancestors and future generations to come—culminates in a climactic reckoning, The Prophets fearlessly reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance but is also shot through with hope, beauty, and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of love.

About the Author: Robert Jones, Jr. (formerly known online as "Son of Baldwin") is a Brooklyn-based, award-winning writer. He is the author of The New York Times bestselling novel, The Prophets, which won the 2022 Publishing Triangle Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, and was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Essence, Variety, and The Paris Review, as well as in the critically acclaimed anthologies Four Hundred Souls and The 1619 Project. His latest work can be found in his newsletter, Witness, at robertjonesjr.substack.com. 

Funding provided by Susan and Stephen Bates and brought to you in partnership with the Library Speakers Consortium.