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Ours

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Ours

By: Phillip B. Williams
Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
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In the mid-1800s, Saint, an enigmatic and powerful conjure woman, always flanked by a silent companion, travels the South annihilating plantations and liberating the enslaved by means of purposeful violence and powerful magic. She founds a town for those she has freed – and for them alone. They name the town Ours. Surrounded by an impenetrable magical border raised by Saint’s powers, Ours is invisible to the outer world and sits blissfully away from prying eyes and violent hands. Saint’s mission is to kill slavery – to scourge its damage from the minds of her charges and to keep them safe forever.

Under Saint’s watchful eye and away from the terrible weight of their enslavement, the townsfolk become neighbours, friends and lovers. They build each other’s homes and care for each other’s children. They love and grieve together. Then two mysterious strangers, Frances and Joy, appear, inexplicably crossing the invisible border from the outer world. Saint and Frances are connected by arcane and indivisible threads, and soon Saint’s lost past and fateful present begin to coalesce in ways that will either prove Ours’ salvation or lay it bare to a world that would destroy it.

Phillip B. Williams’ astonishing debut novel is both a sweeping epic shot through with magic, and an intimate, elemental story about what it means to build a community and to try to build a life in the shadow of, and around the damage wrought by, slavery.©2024 Phillip B. Williams (P)2024 Penguin Random House Audio African American Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Magical Realism Magic
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The rich history and detailed writing was incredible. The story takes you on a journey through time and culture. It is a great reminder of the underlying stories that are often overlooked in recounting history.

Well written

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An authentic delight, woven with warm, wise and irresistible prose. To read is to be blessed by the thoughts and spaces and then impressed by the poesy and depth.

The reader is magnificent and fills the very many very rich characters with life and effortless clarity.

Five gold star.

Exemplary. I will be listening again. And again.

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The town of Ours is an island without a sea, a place protected and haunted by the pain of the people who escaped slavery, torture and pain to get there. It's guardian is Saint, a woman who draws death as well as freedom towards her. Filled with magic, the story of Ours follows Saint and a strange cast of followers and antagonists over decades of time as Ours tries to build a new future over the legacy of racism and exclusion. Strange tidings and omens loom and as strangers attempt to reach the town, and dark forces make themselves known so do the suspicions and distrust of Saint and her powers over time. Filled with incredible characters and images, although at times dense and challenging to follow, this is a distinctive fantasy that challenges the notion of what freedom is and how to be free for people who have experienced oppression and for the generations that follow. You can't quite escape from the spell Ours places on you and at times you lose yourself completely in it or while at others you can feel lost in its complexity and length.

The Mystery and Myths of Freedom

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