The Message

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Between the World and Me journeys to three resonant sites of conflict to explore how the stories we tellΓÇöand the ones we donΓÇÖtΓÇöshape our realities. ΓÇ£[Coates] is intellectually fearless . . . unshackled by political or racial ideology,humane in his judgmentsrespectful of factsacutely aware of the difference between what is knowable and what is not.ΓÇ¥ΓÇöThe New Yorker Ta-Nehisi Coates originally set out to write a book about writingin the tradition of OrwellΓÇÖs classic ΓÇ£Politics and the English LanguageΓÇ¥ but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our storiesΓÇöour reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmakingΓÇöexpose and distort our realities. In the first of the bookΓÇÖs three intertwining essaysCoateson his first trip to Africafinds himself in two places at once: in Dakara modern city in Senegaland in a mythic kingdom in his mind. Then he takes readers along with him to ColumbiaSouth Carolinawhere he reports on his own bookΓÇÖs banningbut also explores the larger backlash to the nationΓÇÖs recent reckoning with history and the deeply rooted American mythology so visible in that cityΓÇöa capital of the Confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares. Finallyin the bookΓÇÖs longest sectionCoates travels to Palestinewhere he sees with devastating clarity how easily we are misled by nationalist narrativesand the tragedy that lies in the clash between the stories we tell and the reality of life on the ground. Written at a dramatic moment in American and global lifethis work from one of the countryΓÇÖs most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive myths that shape our worldΓÇöand our own soulsΓÇöand embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.