Summary
What happens when the dead refuse to stay silent and the living can barely find their voice? In the sweltering heat of rural Mississippi, thirteen-year-old Jojo carries burdens no child should bear – caring for his baby sister while his mother chases her own demons down a highway toward a prison where his white father awaits release. Jesmyn Ward’s National Book Award-winning masterpiece transforms a family road trip into a haunting meditation on inherited trauma, where ghosts walk alongside the living and the past demands to be heard.
Audiobook Info
- Author: Jesmyn Ward
- Narrator: Prentice Onayemi
- Duration: 12 hours and 30 minutes
- Publisher: Harper Audio
- Release Date: September 6, 2017
- Series: Mississippi Project Trilogy
- Book: 3
Review
Prentice Onayemi’s narration is nothing short of revelatory. His voice carries the weight of generations – the weariness of Pop’s prison memories, the desperate longing in Leonie’s fractured consciousness, and the quiet strength building within young Jojo. Onayemi navigates Ward’s shifting perspectives with remarkable precision, creating distinct vocal identities that never feel forced or theatrical. When Richie’s ghostly presence enters the narrative, Onayemi’s delivery sends genuine chills, capturing the otherworldly quality of a boy who died too young and refuses to move on without answers.
Ward’s prose operates on multiple levels simultaneously, blending the visceral reality of poverty, addiction, and racial violence with elements of magical realism that feel organically Southern. The Mississippi landscape becomes a character itself – humid, unforgiving, saturated with history that seeps up from the soil like groundwater. Listening to this audiobook, you can almost smell the pine trees and feel the oppressive heat of a car without proper air conditioning, packed with a family whose love for each other is complicated by resentment, guilt, and generational wounds.
The character work here is extraordinary. Jojo’s premature wisdom breaks your heart even as it inspires admiration. He’s forced into adulthood by circumstances beyond his control, yet Ward never allows him to become a saint – he’s still a child who craves his mother’s attention and struggles to understand the forces tearing his family apart. Leonie, meanwhile, could easily become a villain in lesser hands, but Ward renders her addiction and neglect with such unflinching compassion that you understand, even when you cannot forgive. Her visions of her murdered brother add layers of grief that explain, if not excuse, her failures as a mother.
The magical realism elements – ghosts appearing on roadsides, spirits communicating across time – never feel gimmicky. Instead, they reinforce Ward’s central thesis: that trauma echoes through generations, that the violence of Parchman Farm prison and Jim Crow Mississippi still haunts descendants who never experienced it directly. Richie’s story, slowly unveiled throughout the journey, becomes a devastating parallel to the dangers Jojo faces simply by existing as a Black boy in America.
This audiobook demands attention and rewards it tenfold. Listeners who appreciate literary fiction with emotional depth, those interested in contemporary Southern Gothic storytelling, and anyone seeking to understand the long shadows of American history will find themselves transformed by this experience. The bonus interview with Ward provides valuable context for her creative choices and deepens appreciation for this profound work.
Download & Listen
Experience the haunting power of Jesmyn Ward’s National Book Award winner through Prentice Onayemi’s masterful narration. Download Sing, Unburied, Sing from KTAudiobooks.com and let this unforgettable family’s journey through Mississippi’s ghosts and secrets transform your understanding of love, loss, and legacy.
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