Oprah Winfrey has selected Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’ The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois as the latest pick for her book club.
“I was so enraptured by the story of this modern Black family, and how author Honorée Fanonne Jeffers wove the larger fabric of historical trauma through the family's silence through generations,” Winfrey said in a news release. “It’s a combination of historical and modern and it consumed me.”
Jeffers’ sprawling novel follows an aspiring historian determined to get to the bottom of her own family’s roots in Georgia, where her Black ancestors were enslaved. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “If this isn’t the Great American Novel, it’s a mighty attempt at achieving one.”
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is Jeffers’ first novel. She’s the author of five poetry collections, including The Age of Phillis, which was longlisted for the National Book Award.
On CBS This Morning, Jeffers talked about her book from her home in Norman, Oklahoma. She said she thought she was being pranked when Winfrey called to tell her that her novel had been selected.
“Until she got that Oprah sound in her voice, and said, ‘This is Oprah Winfrey,’ and then I said, ‘Oh, my God!’” Jeffers said. “Then I cried. I cried and cried.”
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois was published today by Harper.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
