The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. is a powerful novel that will simultaneously break your heart and lift your spirit.
At the center of this story are Isaiah and Samuel, two enslaved people on a plantation that is aptly named Empty. Isaiah and Samuel are connected to such a profound degree that even those offended by their relationship cannot deny it. It is, in fact, their unshakable bond that triggers so much fury; anything so beautiful that could grow within the confines of such an ugly place must surely be an abomination.
Although this is not an easy novel, it is a beautiful one – richly imagined, carefully told, it is a book that calls for reading aloud to appreciate its cadence and precise poetic language.
The Prophets reminds us that love does not come from the assumed identities of gender or class, or position. Instead, it comes from a place above and beyond those things – our soul.
“She had not yet arrived at her name, which is to say that she had not grown enough to be given a name since names came from how your soul manifested, and that couldn’t be known until it was time to transition from girl to whatever it was you chose to be after. But everyone had to begin there: girl. Girl was the alpha. Even in the womb, the healers had said, the start was there before anything might change. Circles came before lines; that was what had to be honored.”
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