PROMISED LAND

Ida Bridges and her friends Soweto and Abeni have come of age in a racist America, struggling to assert their identities. Ida was found as a baby amid the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and she was adopted by a white mother and a Black father. Her skin is affected by vitiligo, and she lost her hearing during the storm. Years later, when Ida is in college, her mother gives her and her friends a copy of the Safe Negro Travel Guide, which assisted Black travelers in the Jim Crow–era South, and she urges them to take a road trip of their own. As the journey unfolds, ghostly apparitions of men and women greet the young women with the words “Black, Girl, Chosen” in Black American Sign Language. When the friends’ lives are in danger, these same mysterious figures rescue them; soon, the trio realize that Ida is the “Chosen” one. Meanwhile, as the apparitions appear to other Black men and women throughout the country, law enforcement starts rounding people up and quarantining them with alleged “acute African psychosis syndrome.” This compelling and unpredictable novel features strong characters and a nuanced presentation of modern racial discrimination. Bin Vilio guides readers through an alternate America in which the victims of oppression effectively make their presence known, rising from the water in a powerful symbol of both birth and erasure. Readers will find this work informative and haunting as it speaks to the power of remembering the past and hearing its plea for a true and enduring justice.

A brave and affecting story of resilience.