'This book is a pleasure and a treasure' TAYARI JONES, Women's Prize-winning author of An American Marriage and Kin

THE DEAD ARE RELENTLESS GOSSIPS, OR AT LEAST THESE DEAD ARE...

A year after her father’s death, Aubrey learns she has inherited a share of a farm on the sun-streaked plains of Tennessee. Seeking a way to erase a mounting pile of debt, she travels South to meet a family she barely knows.
Watching her arrival are four ghosts: Aubrey’s ancestors, and the keepers of the farm’s secrets. As Aubrey gets to know her living relatives, the story of the land unfolds - her great-grandfather who bought it, one of the first Black landowners in the community, the four children set to inherit it, their bitter rivalries, and a tragedy that echoes through the decades...
With the sale of the farm looming, the ghosts face exile, and Aubrey must decide how much of her future she is willing to sacrifice to the claims of the past.
Dazzling and expansive, The Great Wherever is a multigenerational portrait of the American South, exploring land and legacy, race and generational wealth, and the sharp fragments of the past – how they spark and shine against the surface of our ordinary lives.
PRAISE FOR THE GREAT WHEREVER:

'An epic and deeply human story' PATRICK RYAN, author of the international bestseller Buckeye

'A gift of a book' VANESSA CHAN, author of the international bestseller The Storm We Made

'Gripping, moving, witty, and wise, this is historical fiction at its finest' MARGARET WILKERSON SEXTON, author of On the Rooftop, a Reese’s Book Club Pick

'I felt dazzled and . . . in awe of all its beauty and magic' DAWNIE WALTON, Women's Prize-longlisted author of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev

ONE OF NEW YORK TIMES' NEW BOOKS TO READ IN JULY

NAMED ONE OF 2026'S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS BY: ESQUIRE | LITERARY HUB | BOOKPAGE | DEBUTIFUL

"Simply put, this book is a pleasure and a treasure. Witty and wise, intelligent and engaging, heartbreaking and heartmending. Shannon Sanders is a writer to keep your eye on" - Tayari Jones, Women's Prize-winning author of AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE

"The Great Wherever is an epic and deeply human story of family and fortune that reaches across the divide between the living and the dead with grace, humor, and emotional conviction. Shannon Sanders’ love for her characters is matched only by her ability to make us care about them as much as she does. I’m in awe of what she accomplishes in this astoundingly good debut novel" - Patrick Ryan, New York Times bestselling author of Buckeye

"In The Great Wherever, Sanders masterfully bridges generations and yet is still able to home in on her characters' intricate inner lives. By the end, they all feel like family, and reading their story feels like coming home. Gripping, moving, witty, and wise, this is historical fiction at its finest" - Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author of On the Rooftop, a Reese’s Book Club Pick

"The Great Wherever is fertile ground for Shannon Sanders’ vast gifts as a writer. Dead or alive, righteous or wrong, every one of her Lambs is a singular, beautiful mess, together growing the rich family history she seeds, from page 1, with great care, heart, and unyielding humor. By novel’s end, I felt as dazzled as one of the ancestors at the edge of the pond, in awe of all its beauty and magic" - Dawnie Walton, Women's Prize-longlisted author of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev

"The Great Wherever is an arch yet heartwarming tale of family, the ghosts that haunt them, and the place we call home. Between the story's heartbreaks, we get leaps of humor that made me love every member of the Lamb family, the ones dead and the ones alive. It is rare to root for every character and yet I found myself doing so. What a gift of a book" - Vanessa Chan, author of international bestseller, The Storm We Made

"

The Great Wherever is a layered, strikingly original novel about inheritance and loss, what we owe the ancestors, and what we dare to claim as our own. Shannon Sanders writes the Lamb family with enormous care and irresistible vitality; even their ghosts have vanity, heartbreak, and humor. An utterly transporting debut

"A gripping multigenerational epic of land, home, and inheritance" - Publisher's Weekly

"A brilliant creation – funny and chaotic" - Good Housekeeping

"Sanders writes with pace and emotion, tackling a multigenerational story rooted in the American South. Oh, and the afterlife has a starring role" - Elle

"Sanders has created something remarkable here, that feels haunting, hopeful, funny sad and longing all at the same time" - Red Magazine, Book of the Month