The Warmth of Other Suns

and did what she was told. James was too little to understand. He was three. He was upset at the commotion. Hold still now, James. Lemme put your shoes on, Ida Mae told him. James wriggled and kicked. He did not like shoes. He ran free in the field. What were these things? He did not like them on his feet. So Ida Mae let him go barefoot.

Miss Theenie stood watching. One by one, her children had left her and gone up north. Sam and Cleve to Ohio. Josie to Syracuse. Irene to Milwaukee. Now the man Miss Theenie had tried to keep Ida Mae from marrying in the first place was taking her away, too. Miss Theenie had no choice but to accept it and let Ida Mae and the grandchildren go for good. Miss Theenie drew them close to her, as she always did whenever anyone was leaving. She had them bow their heads. She whispered a prayer that her daughter and her daughter s family be protected on the long journey ahead in the Jim Crow car.

May the Lord be the first in the car, she prayed, and the last out.

When the time had come, Ida Mae and little James and Velma and all that they could carry were loaded into a brother-in-law s truck, and the three of them went to meet Ida Mae s husband at the train depot in Okolona for the night ride out of the bottomland.

2

Wildwood, Florida, April 14, 1945

george swanson starling

a man named roscoe colton gave Lil George Starling a ride in his pickup truck to the train station in Wildwood through the fruit-bearing scrubland of central Florida. And Schoolboy, as the toothless orange pickers mockingly called him, boarded the Silver Meteor pointing north.

A railing divided the stairs onto the train, one side of the railing for white passengers, the other for colored, so the soles of

. .Wilkerson has taken on one of the most important demographic upheavals of the past century a phenomenon whose dimensions and significance have eluded many a scholar and told it through the lives of three people no one has ever heard of .This is narrative nonfiction, lyrical and tragic and fatalist. The story exposes; the story moves; the story ends. What Wilkerson urges, finally, isn t argument at all; it s compassion. Hush, and listen.   Jill Lepore, The New Yorker

"The Warmth of Other Suns is epic in its reach and in its structure. Told in a voice that echoes the magic cadences of Toni Morrison or the folk wisdom of Zora Neale Hurston s collected oral histories, Wilkerson s book pulls not just the expanse of the migration into focus but its overall impact on politics, literature, music, sports in the nation and the world." Lynell George, Los Angeles Times 

One of the most lyrical and important books of the season." David Shribman, Boston Globe

[An] extraordinary and evocative work. The Washington Post

Mesmerizing. . . Chicago Tribune

Scholarly but very readable, this book, for all its rigor, is so absorbing, it should come with a caveat: Pick it up only when you can lose yourself entirely.   O, The Oprah Magazine
 
"[An] indelible and compulsively readable portrait of race, class, and politics in 20th-century America. History is rarely distilled so finely. Grade: A Entertainment Weekly

An astonishing work. . . . Isabel Wilkerson delivers! . . . With the precision of a surgeon, Wilkerson illuminates the stories of bold, faceless African-Americans who transformed cities and industries with their hard work and determination to provide their children with better lives. Essence

Isabel Wilkerson s majestic The Warmth of Other Suns shows that not everyone bloomed, but the migrants Wilkerson prefers to think of them as domestic immigrants remade the entire country, North and South. It s a monumental job of writing and reporting that lives up to its subtitle: The Epic Story of America s Great Migration. USA Today
 
[A] sweeping history of the Great Migration. . . . The Warmth of Other Suns builds upon such purely academic works to make the migrant experience both accessible and emotionally compelling. NPR.org
 
The Warmth of Other Suns is a beautifully written, in-depth analysis of what Wilkerson calls one of the most underreported stories of the 20th century. . .  A masterpiece that sheds light on a significant development in our nation s history. The San Jose Mercury News

The Warmth of Other Suns is a beautifully written book that, once begun, is nearly impossible to put aside. It is an unforgettable combination of tragedy and inspiration, and gripping subject matter and characters in a writing style that grabs the reader on Page 1 and never let s go. . . . Woven into the tapestry of [three individuals] lives, in prose that is sweet to savor, Wilkerson tells the larger story, the general situation of life in the South for blacks. . . . If you read one only one book about history this year, read this. If you read only one book about African Americans this year, read this. If you read only one book this year, read this. The Free Lance Star, Fredericksburg, Va.

"A truly auspicious debut. . . . The author deftly intersperses [her characters'] stories with short vignettes about other individuals and consistently provides the bigger picture without interrupting the flow of the narrative Wilkerson s focus on the personal aspect lends her book a markedly different, more accessible tone. Her powerful storytelling style, as well, gives this decades-spanning history a welcome novelistic flavor. An impressive take on the Great Migration."  Kirkus, Starred Review

[A] magnificent, extensively researched study of the great migration The drama, poignancy, and romance of a classic immigrant saga pervade this book, hold the reader in its grasp, and resonate long after the reading is done.
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Not since Alex Haley s Roots has there been a history of equal literary quality where the writing surmounts the rhythmic soul of fiction, where the writer s voice sings a song of redemptive glory as true as Faulkner s southern cantatas. The San Francisco Examiner

Profound, necessary and an absolute delight to read. Toni Morrison
 
The Warmth of Other Suns is a sweeping and yet deeply personal tale of America s hidden 20th century history - the long and difficult trek of Southern blacks to the northern and western cities. This is an epic for all Americans who want to understand the making of our modern nation. Tom Brokaw
 
A seminal work of narrative nonfiction. . . . You will never forget these people. Gay Talese

With compelling prose and considered analysis, Isabel Wilkerson has given us a landmark portrait of one of the most significant yet little-noted shifts in American history: the migration of African-Americans from the Jim Crow South to the cities of the North and West.  It is a complicated tale, with an infinity of implications for questions of race, power, politics, religion, and class implications that are unfolding even now.  This book will be long remembered, and savored. Jon Meacham
 
Isabel Wilkerson s The Warmth of Other Suns is an American masterpiece, a stupendous literary success that channels the social sciences as iconic biography in order to tell a vast story of a people's reinvention of itself and of a nation the first complete history of the Great Black Migration from start to finish, north, east, west. David Levering Lewis

Isabel Wilkerson s book is a masterful narrative of the rich wisdom and deep courage of a great people.  Don t miss it! Cornel West