Bedeviled by the voices and suggestions of ancestors who had been in her shoes, Annis, a young slave girl, walks from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the hot steaming streets of New Orleans and onto a sugar plantation in Louisiana.

Jesmyn Ward’s latest book, LET US DESCEND, creates a first person narrative for Annis as she is separated from her beloved mother, her lover and anyone she has ever cared for. It is as close to a new Toni Morrison novel as one could hope to get from another fantastically talented African American female writer. Set during the time before the Civil War, it shows one woman’s desperate attempts at freedom --- in her mind and on the ground --- and explores if the ways of her elders have any bearing on how she should try to survive her own painful life.

"It is as close to a new Toni Morrison novel as one could hope to get from another fantastically talented African American female writer.... LET US DESCEND is sure to cement Jesmyn Ward’s reputation as a writer whose books will stand the test of time."

Readers are given constant access to the horror show of life’s scant offerings for Annis. Her story is a remarkable show of strength and a prolonged intellectual and spiritual battle to understand why her generation continues the travails of the past instead of finding their freedom in some other part of the world. Before the Civil War, Annis considers running away and making a life of her own instead of being tormented by the slave life into which she has been born. The generational strife is discussed with a ghost named Aza, a warrior woman of her family line who does not give her easy answers on her quest. Little by little, Annis opens herself up to the spirit world that both gives and takes from the bleeding backs of the enslaved people all around her.

As the book's title attests, it is a descent into the lowest depths of human experience. But will Annis ever get to find the higher truths that can spell freedom for her for real? This is an extremely tough read that anyone with a heart and soul will find terrifying, disgusting and deeply sad in equal measure.

Annis is a wonderful character who has learned from her strong mother how to turn the tables on her captors. Her clear, individual voice is unique in its ability to question and consider. Aza becomes her guide, never giving her succor or ease but presenting her with the truths about how she got to where she is and how her mother and grandmother had what they thought could be solutions for survival.

Ward is, like Morrison before her, not one to offer empty platitudes or happy endings. Her hope is that each generation of women who were destined for slavedom in an unjust world can gain strength along the way. She wants every ancestor to stop waiting for a hero and be one themselves because storybook tales and myths of saviors have never broken through the iron jaws of reality.

LET US DESCEND is sure to cement Jesmyn Ward’s reputation as a writer whose books will stand the test of time.