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2024 Aspen Words Literary Prize Longlist


Showing 1 - 6 of 6  There are a total of 16 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "The five sorrowful mysteries of Andy Africa"
Star rating for The five sorrowful mysteries of Andy Africa
Description:
Falling hopelessly and inappropriately in love with the first white girl he lays eyes on, Andy Africa, an unusually smart fifteen-year-old in Kontagora, Nigeria, is forced to reckon with his identity and desires and determine how to live on the so-called Cursed Continent. Andrew Aziza is a fifteen-year-old boy living in Kontagora in Northern Nigeria. He lives with his secretive mother, Gloria, and spends his days about town with his droogs, Slim...
Book cover for "I have some questions for you"
Star rating for I have some questions for you
Average Rating:
3.3 stars
Description:
"In the riveting new novel from the author of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist The Great Believers, a woman must reckon with her past when new details surface about a tragedy at her elite New England boarding school"- - "A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past--the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the...
Book cover for "Let us descend"
Star rating for Let us descend
Author:
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
'Let us descend,' the poet now began, 'and enter this blind world.' -Inferno, Dante Alighieri. Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation. Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who...
Book cover for "Temple folk"
Star rating for Temple folk
Description:
"A groundbreaking debut collection portraying the lived experiences of Black Muslims grappling with faith, family, and freedom in America"-- "In Temple Folk, Black Muslims contemplate the convictions of their race, religion, economics, politics, and sexuality in the United States. The ten stories in this collection contribute to the bounty of diverse narratives about Black life by intimately portraying the experiences of a community that resists...
Book cover for "What happened to Ruthy Ramirez"
Star rating for What happened to Ruthy Ramirez
Average Rating:
2.5 stars
Description:
"The Ramirez women of Staten Island orbit around absence. When thirteen year old middle child Ruthy disappeared after track practice without a trace, it left the family scarred and scrambling. One night, twelve years later, oldest sister Jessica spots a woman on her TV screen in Catfight, a raunchy reality show. She rushes to tell her younger sister, Nina: This woman's hair is dyed red, and she calls herself Ruby, but the beauty mark under her left...
Book cover for "When trying to return home"
Star rating for When trying to return home
Description:
Profoundly moving and powerful, the stories in this volume dig deeply into the question of belonging. A young woman is torn between overwhelming love for her mother and the need to break free from her damaging influence during a desperate and disastrous attempt to rescue her brother from foster care. A man, his wife, and his mistress each confront the borders separating love and hate, obligation and longing, on the eve of a flight to San Juan. A college...