Sula cover art

Sula

A Novel

 Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

About this listen

 One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years • A modern masterpiece about love and kinship, about living in an America birthed from slavery. Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison gives life to characters who struggle with what society tells them to be, and the love they long for and crave as Black women. • With a new introduction by Jesmyn Ward.

“Extravagantly beautiful. . . . Enormously, achingly alive.” —The New York Times

Sula and Nel are born in the Bottom—a small town at the top of a hill. Sula is wild, and daring; she does what she wants, while Nel is well-mannered, a mamma’s girl with a questioning heart. Growing up they forge a bond stronger than anything, stronger even than the dark secret they have to bear. Strong enough, it seems, to last a lifetime—until, decades later, as the girls become women, Sula’s anarchy leads to a betrayal that may be beyond forgiveness.

African American Classics Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

Critic reviews

“Extravagantly beautiful. . . . Enormously, achingly alive. . . . A howl of love and rage, playful and funny as well as hard and bitter.” —The New York Times

“Exemplary. . . . The essential mysteries of death and sex, friendship and poverty are expressed with rare economy.” —Newsweek

“In characters like Sula, Toni Morrison’s originality and power emerge.” —The Nation

“Enchanting. . . . Powerful.” —Chicago Daily News

“Toni Morrison is not just an important contemporary novelist but a major figure in our national literature.” —The New York Review of Books

“Sula is one of the most beautifully written, sustained works of fiction I have read in some time. . . . [Morrison] is a major talent.” —Elliot Anderson, Chicago Tribune

“As mournful as a spiritual and as angry as a clenched fist . . . written in language so pure and resonant that it makes you ache.” —Playboy

“In the first ranks of our living novelists.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Toni Morrison’s gifts are rare: the re-creation of the black experience in America with both artistry and authenticity.” —Library Journal

“Should be read and passed around by book-lovers everywhere.” —Los Angeles Free Press
All stars
Most relevant
Haunting story, beautifully written and I loved how she read this! Can't wait to pick up another Morrison.

Extraordinary

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It was great to rediscover this book I read over 30 years ago. Morrison’s ability to write about violent and devastating events that creep up on you so surprisingly never fails to amaze me. Can’t wait to listen to some more. Some odd edits where she repeats a few lines twice need editing
out in the recording but absolutely wonderful to hear her read it what a brilliant woman

Extraordinary writing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Fascinating and full of the oddest and loneliest characters - they remind me of people I've met. Toni Morrison has captured the turbulence and absurdities of people's lives, their joy, love and playfulness, as well as their hidden depths and the darker facets of their souls. This book is not easy reading/ listening, but it makes you sit up and take note. The book has a lonesome feel, but also a warmth.

Lonesome

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautiful & poignant , absolutely wonderful to listen to . Both blunt & majestical in the use of language & the narration .

Stunning

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved Toni’s soft and gentle reading of this beautiful poetic novel. So deep, profound, splendid text, it was like savoring an exotic and fine desert for me. It easily not so much the plot, as the impredictibility, the depth, the feelings of the characters and the tenderness of the language that mesmerized me.

Poetic, elegant and raw

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews