Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award โขย One of the New York Timesโ Ten Best Books of the Year โขย Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize
โA triumph.โโNew York Magazine
From one of the most celebrated new voices in American literature, a brilliantly inventive and โenthrallingโ (Oprah Daily) novel about the eternal bonds of family and the mysteries of love and lossโโalready earning its authorย comparisons to Toni Morrisonโ (Lit Hub).
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, Oprah Daily, Time, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Esquire, Vulture, Ms. Magazine, Vox, Mental Floss, BookPage, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly
I donโt want to tell you what happened. I want to tell you how it felt.
Cassandra Williams is twelve; her little brother, Wayne, is seven. One day, when theyโre alone together, there is an accident and Wayne is lost forever. His body is never recovered. The missing boy cleaves the family with doubt. Their father leaves, starts another family elsewhere. But their mother canโt give up hope and launches an organization dedicated to missing children.ย
As C grows older, she sees her brother everywhere: in bistros, airplane aisles, subway cars. Here is her brotherโs face, the light in his eyes, the way he seems to recognize her, too. But it canโt be, of course. Or can it? Then one day, in another accident, C meets a man both mysterious and familiar, a man who is also searching for someone and for his own place in the world. His name is Wayne.ย
Namwali Serpellโs remarkable new novel captures the uncanny experience of grief, the way the past breaks over the present like waves in the sea. The Furrows is a bold exploration of memory and mourning that twists unexpectedly into a story of mistaken identity, double consciousness, and the wishfulโand sometimes willfulโlonging for reunion with those weโve lost.