Phillip B. Williams - Ours _ A Novel

A poetic knockout, Ours conjures memories of reading Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer, and Jesmyn Ward’s Let Us Descend. With a dash of magical realism, Williams unveils a multigenerational story of formerly enslaved men, women, and children, who live together in a town called Ours—a town that does not appear on any map—thanks to the powers of the town’s creator, Saint. But, as time ticks by, this idealistic safe haven becomes vulnerable and threats lurk everywhere—as Phillip B. Williams writes, "freedom didn’t mean safety...and if there’s anything more shockingly unpredictable than freedom, it’s love." And with that line, the novel ignites—smoking out the stories of those that live in Ours and beyond. Supported by a cast of characters that you won’t soon forget, and exquisite sentences throughout, Ours is at once saturated in majestic myth, an interrogation of slavery’s legacy, and the complications of community, friendship, and the very notion of freedom. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor