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Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award One of the New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize

A triumphNew York Magazine

From one of the most celebrated new voices in American literature a brilliantly inventive and enthralling Oprah Daily novel about the eternal bonds of family and the mysteries of love and lossalready earning its authorcomparisons to Toni Morrison Lit Hub

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR The New Yorker Oprah Daily Time The Washington Post Los Angeles Times The Guardian Esquire Vulture Ms Magazine Vox Mental Floss BookPage Kirkus Reviews Publishers Weekly

I dont want to tell you what happened I want to tell you how it felt

Cassandra Williams is twelve her little brother Wayne is seven One day when theyre alone together there is an accident and Wayne is lost forever His body is never recovered The missing boy cleaves the family with doubt Their father leaves starts another family elsewhere But their mother cant give up hope and launches an organization dedicated to missing children

As C grows older she sees her brother everywhere in bistros airplane aisles subway cars Here is her brothers face the light in his eyes the way he seems to recognize her too But it cant be of course Or can it Then one day in another accident C meets a man both mysterious and familiar a man who is also searching for someone and for his own place in the world His name is Wayne

Namwali Serpells remarkable new novel captures the uncanny experience of grief the way the past breaks over the present like waves in the sea The Furrows is a bold exploration of memory and mourning that twists unexpectedly into a story of mistaken identity double consciousness and the wishfuland sometimes willfullonging for reunion with those weve lost