Palmares

Gayl Jones

*'A once-in-a-lifetime work of literature the kind that changes your understanding of the world' Yara Rodriguez Fowler Guardian
* 'Astonishingly rich in character and incident filled with magic and mystery' Nick Rennison Sunday Times
* 'Tremendous. A masterfully absorbing mythic work from a vital voice' Irenosen Okojie


Palmares hails the return of a major voice in literature - 'the best American novelist whose name you may not know' (Atlantic). Gayl Jones was first discovered and edited by Toni Morrison and her talent was praised by writers including Maya Angelou James Baldwin and John Updike. After a handful of acclaimed novels she withdrew from the publishing world. Now Jones returns with her first new novel in over two decades.

AN EPIC TALE OF LOVE AND LIBERATION SET IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY COLONIAL BRAZIL

From plantation to plantation Almeyda a young slave girl hears whispers rumours of Palmares a hidden settlement where fugitive slaves live free. But can this promised land exist? And what price is paid for 'freedom'?

In Palmares Gayl Jones brings to life a world full of unforgettable characters reimagining extraordinary historical events and combining them with mythology and magic. The result is a sweeping saga spanning a quarter of a century. Of Gayl Jones the New Yorker noted '[Her] great achievement is to reckon with both history and interiority and to collapse the boundary between them.' Like nothing else before it Palmares embodies this gift.