The Deep, Rivers Solomon
The Deep, Rivers Solomon
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The Deep

Author: Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes

Narrator: Daveed Diggs

Unabridged: 4 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/05/2019


Synopsis

Winner of the 2021 Audie Award

ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF 2019

The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award–nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’s rap group clipping

Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.

Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.

Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.

Inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping for the This American Life episode “We Are In The Future,” The Deep is vividly original and uniquely affecting.

About Rivers Solomon

Rivers Solomon is the author of An Unkindness of Ghosts, and was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award finalist for Best New Writer. They graduated from Stanford University with a degree in comparative studies in race and ethnicity and hold an MFA in fiction writing from the Michener Center for Writers. Though originally from the United States, they currently live in Cambridge, England, with their family. Find them on X @CyborgYndroid.

About Daveed Diggs

Daveed Diggs is an actor, singer, producer, writer, and rapper. He is the vocalist of the experimental hip hop group Clipping. Diggs originated the role of Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson in the 2015 musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda which he won a Grammy and Tony for. He also cowrote, produced, and stars in the film Blindspotting. Find him on X @DaveedDiggs.

About William Hutson

William Hutson is a composer, known for Room 237 (2012), The Mayor (2017), and Ten Minutes Is Two Hours (2013). He is part of the rap group Clipping. Find him on X @Clppng.

About Jonathan Snipes

Jonathan Snipes is a composer and sound designer for film and theater living in Los Angeles. He occasionally teaches sound design in the theater department at UCLA, and is a member of the rap group Clipping. Find him at Jonat8han.com.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kat

this book was so small but had so much to take in!! i gotta think about it for a second for a final rating, but i will tell u that feelings are positive & y’all need to give this a try!......more

Goodreads review by Cindy

I'll read any book that Rivers Solomon puts out because their ideas are always unique, creative, and poignant. While An Unkindness of Ghosts follows a more traditional narrative, The Deep reads more as an atmospheric and conceptual piece, which makes it harder for me to rate since I prefer the forme......more

Make sure that you listen to the song The Deep by clipping. as well as the group Drexciya. How does a book under 200 pages stump me in terms of writing a review. I'm sitting here, at this moment, in my chair attempting to figure out how to summarize/express my feelings about this book. I think that......more