6 book recommendations from Morgan Jerkins

Morgan Jerkins is the author of the essay collection This Will Be My Undoing and of the memoir Wandering in Strange Lands. Her latest book is Caul Baby, a novel about a daughter of Harlem raised by a family said to possess healing powers.

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (1977).

This book soars from the first page, and that undercurrent of wanting to fly will follow you as you read about the life of Macon "Milkman" Dead III. Our protagonist seeks to understand the depths that his familial roots extend to and travels back to his family's ancestral land in Virginia to seek clarity about his people and their ways.

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On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (2019).

Beyond the gorgeous prose, Vuong's loosely autobiographical novel tenderly speaks about his Vietnamese family's origins, the consequences of migration, and the impact of his mother's rearing on his notions of cultural identity. You will be spellbound by Vuong's weaving together of history and language.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (2017).

This was one of the only books that I was able to get through during the pandemic. Pachinko is historical fiction that details a Korean family's trajectory both before and after they immigrate to Japan in the early 20th century. Throughout all of its vivid intimate moments, readers will understand much broader implications: how they relate to cultural memory and erasure, gender dynamics, and migration.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo (2019).

A multigenerational and polyphonic novel (that won the Booker Prize!), Girl, Woman, Other blends the lives of 12 Black, U.K.-based women of various ages and sexualities over the course of decades. It's a multilayered story that is humorous, complex, and awe-inspiring. You'll want to stay with these women forever.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (2017).

This National Book Award winner is one of the best novels that I've ever read, and I'm not being hyperbolic. Sing, Unburied, Sing is a story grounded in rural Mississippi and a family whose ties to an infamous prison follow them around, both figuratively and supernaturally.

The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell (2019).

An undertaking of a debut (coming in at close to 600 pages), Serpell's novel traces the intricate threads of Zambian history, centering on the Black, white, and brown members of three families, that stretch from colonialism to the present day. It is thrilling.

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