My Monticello

My Monticello

Summary

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What we saw in those moments riveted us, and then it set us free

In a time of rolling blackouts and terrible storms battering America, the neighbourhood of 1st Street, Charlottesville is attacked by violent white supremacists.

Families, friends and strangers flee for their lives in an abandoned bus, taking refuge in Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's historic plantation home in the hills above town.

Over nineteen heart-stopping days the group find ways to care for and sustain one another as the world burns beneath them.

Told by Da'Naisha Love, a young Black descendant of Jefferson and Sally Hemings, My Monticello is a searing indictment of racism past and present, and a powerful vision of resistance, hope and love.

'Electrifying' COLSON WHITEHEAD

'Absolutely unforgettable' ROXANE GAY

© Jocelyn Nicole Johnson 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Reviews

  • Riveting storytelling. This incandescent work speaks not just to the moment, but to history
    Publishers Weekly (starred review)

About the author

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's writing has appeared in Guernica and the Guardian and has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories 2018, guest edited by Roxane Gay. My Monticello is her debut. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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