*A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*

'This visionary and deeply evocative debut carves a radiant love story out of the bleakest of landscapes.' Waterstones - Best Books to Look Out For in 2021

'An Outstanding novel' Guardian
'A lyrical, poetic novel' Independent
'Epic in its scale' Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf
'A rare marvel' Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
'Magisterial' Courttia Newland, author of A River Called Time
'A spellbinding debut' COSMO
'Ambitious and intense' Vanity Fair

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One of:
The New York Times Book Review's Books to Watch for in January
The Washington Post's 10 Books to Read in January
TIME's 10 New Books You Should Read in January
O, the Oprah Magazine's 32 LGBTQ Books That Will Change
the Literary Landscape in 2021
Cosmopolitan's New LGBTQ+ Books to Add to Your Reading List
BuzzFeed's Most Anticipated Historical Fiction of 2021
Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2021
The Millions' Most Anticipated Books of 2021

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In this blinding debut, Robert Jones Jr. blends the lyricism of Toni Morrison with the vivid prose of Zora Neale Hurston to characterise the forceful, enduring bond of love, and what happens when brutality threatens the purest form of serenity.

The Halifax plantation is known as Empty by the slaves who work it under the pitiless gaze of its overseers and its owner, Massa Paul. Two young enslaved men, Samuel and Isaiah dwell among the animals they keep in the barn, helping out in the fields when their day is done. But the barn is their haven, a space of radiance and love - away from the blistering sun and the cruelty of the toubabs - where they can be alone together.

But, Amos - a fellow slave - has begun to direct suspicion towards the two men and their refusal to bend. Their flickering glances, unspoken words and wilful intention, revealing a truth that threatens to rock the stability of the plantation. And preaching the words of Massa Paul's gospel, he betrays them.

The culminating pages of The Prophets summon a choral voice of those who have suffered in silence, with blistering humanity, as the day of reckoning arrives at the Halifax plantation. Love, in all its permutations, is the discovery at the heart of Robert Jones Jr's breathtaking debut, The Prophets.

"How devastating and glorious this is. Epic in its scale, intimate in its force, and lyrical in its beauty. The Prophets shakes right down to the bone what the American novel is, should do, and can be. That shuffling sound you hear is Morrison, Baldwin, and Angelou whooping and hollering both in pride, and wonder" - Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf

"The Prophets is indeed an outstanding novel, delivering tender, close-up intimacy, but also a great sweep of history" - The Guardian

" A spellbinding debut narrated by a variety of characters tells the story of the forbidden union between Samuel and Isaiah, two enslaved young men on a plantation in America's Deep South and the desire to forge connections. Vividly drawn, Jones Jr. skilfully rewrites the existence of Black queer people in recent history" - COSMO (BEST BOOKS ROUNDUP)

"A polyphonic novel" - Vanity Fair

"The writing is beautifully evocative - a book you'll be thinking about long after you've finished it." - Good Housekeeping

"The Prophets is a lyrical, poetic novel, one that, despite its harrowing scenes, leaves you with some sense of humanity." - Independent

"Epic in its scope, the novel portrays a black history that connects African ancestors, nature, spiritualism, sex, love and shared trauma - an ambitious and intense mix." - Grimsby Telegraph

"[E]ach lyrical, densely detailed paragraph is itself a transfixing journey." - Daily Mail

"

Epic in its scope, the novel portrays a black history that connects African ancestors, nature, spiritualism, sex, love and
shared trauma - an ambitious and intense mix.

"This (...) is a novel wedded to its period but also of our times, exploring the pressing questions that have plagued America since its founding. It manages to be many things at once, stirring both the heart and the intellect in an exploration of human desire and depravity. A trenchant study of character, it is refreshing in its portrayal of the daily negotiations of humanity under slavery (...). Black queer love is at its most radical here. (...). Through it, the human demands to be seen. It becomes, in this magnificent novel, synonymous with freedom." - Guardian

"carries a powerful emotional resonance" - The Scotsman

"There are stabs of real beauty in his descriptions, a sense of building tragedy that draws you in, and characters you want to live with for a good while after you've turned the last page." - The Times

"

This is a dark and poignant story that lives in the experience of slavery, and gives voice to people, even
more marginalised, stigmatised and abused than their contemporaries. Jones Jr is a vivid and beguiling
storyteller and the empathy he feels for his characters is unsentimental. A raw and powerful read.

"Dark, moving and powerful" - Attitude Magazine

"[a] poetic and powerful debut" - Tatler