Let Us Descend
Jesmyn Ward's 2023 novel follows Annis, a young enslaved woman in the American South before the Civil War, who is sold away from her mother and forced on a grueling march to be sold again in New Orleans. Drawing its title from Dante's Inferno, the book renders Annis's journey as both a literal trek through a hellish world of bondage and a spiritual passage shaped by the presence of spirits, including one tied to her own warrior ancestry. Ward, a two-time National Book Award winner, writes in dense, poetic prose that blends brutal historical reality with myth and the supernatural. Annis draws strength from memories of her mother and grandmother as she endures violence, loss, and the constant threat of erasure. The result is a searing meditation on survival, ancestry, and the inner life of someone the historical record would have rendered invisible.
What you might want to know about Let Us Descend
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
An enslaved young woman is sold and marched south to the slave markets of New Orleans, guided and tested by spirits as she fights to hold onto herself.
The title is drawn from Dante's Inferno, reflecting the novel's framing of Annis's journey through the world of slavery as a descent through a kind of hell.
Let Us Descend was written by Jesmyn Ward, published in 2023 by Scribner.
Let Us Descend is 288 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Let Us Descend takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
Let Us Descend is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.