The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’s debut novel explores the history of an African-American family in the American South, from before the Civil War, through the Civil Rights Movement, to the present. The prose narrative is interspersed with poetic passages, the ‘love songs’ of the title, which give insight into the lives of the protagonist’s ancestors, people of African, Creek and Scottish descent. Its themes include family history, education and racism.