Sing, Unburied, Sing
**A SEARING AND PROFOUND SOUTHERN ODYSSEY BY NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER JESMYN WARD** In Jesmyn Ward's first novel since her National Book Award-winning *Salvage the Bones*, this singular American writer brings the archetypal road novel into rural twenty-first-century America. Drawing on Morrison and Faulkner, *The Odyssey* and the Old Testament, Ward gives us an epochal story, a journey through Mississippi's past and present that is both an intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle. Ward is a major American writer, multiply awarded and universally lauded, and in *Sing, Unburied, Sing* she is at the height of her powers. Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, and the occasional presence of their drug-addicted mother, Leonie, on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Leonie is simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she's high; Mam is dying of cancer; and quiet, steady Pop tries to run the household and teach Jojo how to be a man. When the white father of Leonie's children is released from prison, she packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out for Par
Themes & atmosphere
Also by Jesmyn Ward
All works by Jesmyn Ward →
What you might want to know about Sing, Unburied, Sing
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Thirteen-year-old Jojo, his addict mother Leonie, and his toddler sister Kayla drive across Mississippi to bring his father home from Parchman Farm. A boy who died there, Richie, joins the car for the ride home.
Yes. Sing, Unburied, Sing won the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction, making Jesmyn Ward the first woman to win the prize twice (after Salvage the Bones in 2011).
Yes. Hulu has been developing a Sing, Unburied, Sing adaptation. As of 2025, the project remains in development.
Sing, Unburied, Sing was written by Jesmyn Ward, published in 2017 by Scribner.
Sing, Unburied, Sing is 304 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, Sing, Unburied, Sing takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
Sing, Unburied, Sing is a standalone novel by Jesmyn Ward, not part of a series.
Sing, Unburied, Sing is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.