Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Aja Naomi King

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My Monticello

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Riveting storytelling. This incandescent work speaks not just to the moment, but to history

A badass debut by any measure - nimble, knowing, and electrifying

Colson Whitehead, twice-Pulitzer Prize winning author of THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD and THE NICKEL BOYS

Absolutely unforgettable. Johnson's prose soars to remarkable heights

Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of HUNGER and AYITI

Unputdownable... Extraordinarily powerful... One of the finest books of 2021 and a future classic

My Monticello is a magnificent debut that holds so much in its gaze. This breathtaking, artful book is a gift

Megha Majumdar, New York Times bestselling author of A BURNING

I was enthralled from the opening lines of this book. Stunning

Charles Yu, National Book Award-winning author of INTERIOR CHINATOWN

This is a stunning debut by a brilliant and original new voice

Danielle Evans, award-winning author of THE OFFICE OF HISTORICAL CORRECTIONS

An extraordinary debut from a gifted writer with an unflinching view of history and what may come of it.

Johnson is a great observer. The novel is full of stunningly precise figurative language... [it's] utterly absorbing...a meditation of how the brutal past of slavery still has a potent legacy in contemporary America; it also portrays the redemptive powers of love and care

This powerful and memorable book is a must-read

[A] tenderly rendered apocalyptic novella... Johnson is an unusually sensitive writer, combining a mood of impending doom with language of soulful beauty

This brief, brilliant gut-punch of a novel is frighteningly plausible... Lush, harrowing, and entirely believable - a marvel of economy

My Monticello is short, satisfying and punchy: more debuts should be like this

This brief, brilliant gut-punch of a novel is frighteningly plausible

My Monticello is a bleak story but reading it elicits the same kind of sensation that comes from listening to a poignant blues song: there is pleasure in its creation without denying the pain of the subject

A history lesson, a fable, an inquiry into the nature of historic monuments, a heartfelt tale of community and above all a nail-biting story.

Beautifully written with unforgettable characters... My Monticello is an unforgettable and thought-provoking novella that will unsettle you to your core.

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.

THE most powerful read of summer 2022

Brought to you by Penguin. 
 
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

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.

My Monticello

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Riveting storytelling. This incandescent work speaks not just to the moment, but to history

A badass debut by any measure - nimble, knowing, and electrifying

An electric new literary voice

Absolutely unforgettable. Johnson's prose soars to remarkable heights

Unputdownable... Extraordinarily powerful... One of the finest books of 2021 and a future classic

My Monticello is a magnificent debut that holds so much in its gaze. This breathtaking, artful book is a gift

I was enthralled from the opening lines of this book. Stunning

This is a stunning debut by a brilliant and original new voice

Johnson's debut book is stellar

A powerful and beautiful read

About Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

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