Description

National Bestseller • New York Times Bestseller

Acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates, known for *Between the World and Me*, embarks on a journey to three historically significant locations to examine how the narratives we create—and the ones we leave untold—shape our perceptions of reality.

“Ta-Nehisi Coates always writes with a purpose. . . . These pilgrimages, for him, help ground his powerful writing about race.” —Associated Press

“Coates exhorts readers, including students, parents, educators, and journalists, to challenge conventional narratives that can be used to justify ethnic cleansing or camouflage racist policing. Brilliant and timely.” —Booklist (starred review)

Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • Named a Best Book of the Year by *The New York Times Book Review*, NPR, *Vanity Fair*, *Town & Country*, and *Electric Lit*

Coates initially set out to reflect on the craft of writing, following in the tradition of George Orwell’s classic essay *Politics and the English Language*. However, his exploration soon expanded into a deeper reckoning with how storytelling—through journalism, literature, and myth—both reveals and distorts truth.

In the book’s first essay, Coates travels to Dakar, Senegal, where he finds himself simultaneously present in the modern city and lost in a mythical vision of Africa shaped by his own imagination. Next, he takes readers to Columbia, South Carolina, where he confronts the banning of his own book while also investigating the broader backlash against the nation’s attempts to reckon with its history. In a city once central to the Confederacy, where statues of segregationists still stand, he unpacks the enduring influence of American mythology.

In the final and longest section, Coates journeys to Palestine, where he witnesses firsthand the power of nationalist narratives to obscure reality. With striking clarity, he exposes the gap between the stories we are told and the lived experiences on the ground, revealing the tragic consequences of these competing perspectives.

Written at a pivotal moment in both American and global history, this book from one of today’s most essential voices urges us to break free from destructive myths and confront even the most uncomfortable truths, recognizing the liberating power they hold.