Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. I used to be the kind of reader who

was annoyed anytime anything slightly spiritual or supernatural would show up in a book that was

otherwise realistic. I'm not sure what caused this particular tick. I'm sure unpacking it

could take dozens of emotionally stressful hours,

but I got over it and found real beauty in books that blend reality with non-reality.

But in case you needed convincing, Jasmine Ward talks really deeply about spirituality in this

interview about her new book, Let Us Descend. It's about a black enslaved woman

named Anis who seems to go through relentless tragedies. And Ward tells NPR's Ayesha Rosco

that if she had written a book that was rooted in social realism, it simply wouldn't be an accurate

reflection of the reality she's trying to convey.

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In her new novel set before the Civil War, author Jesman Ward, drops readers into the life

of a young enslaved black woman named Annis in the American South. We follow Anis through a

hellscape as she separated from her mother, sent to an auction, and sold to another

slave owner. But despite her journey through one horror after another, Annis also finds brief

moments of tenderness. After the rain passes, the sun dogs us for days. It burns me red. The wind scrapes my face, blowing incessantly

for a week. Its rush is strange and loud, and so relentless that I missed the sound of flowing water.

We are all startled by the Georgia men telling us to halt in a sudden clearing. There's a green hill,

trees all around us in an overturned bowl,

a waterfall tossing down into a pool the same deep green as the trees around us. It's so beautiful I feel a turning in my chest, my heart a small bird stirring in its nest. For a moment, I don't feel

...