book cover of None But the Righteous
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None But the Righteous

(2022)
A novel by

 
 
Lyrical, riveting, and haunting from its opening lines, None But the Righteous is an extraordinary debut that signals the arrival of an unforgettable new voice in contemporary fiction

In seventeenth-century Peru, St. Martin de Porres was torn from his body after death. His bones were pillaged as relics, and his spirit was said to inhabit those bones. Four centuries later, amid the havoc of Hurricane Katrina, nineteen-year-old Ham escapes New Orleans with his only valued possession: a pendant handed down from his foster mother, Miss Pearl. There’s something about the pendant that has always gripped him, and the curiosity of it has grown into a kind of comfort.
 
When Ham finally embarks on a fraught journey back home, he seeks the answer to a question he cannot face: Is Miss Pearl still alive? Ham travels from Atlanta to rural Alabama, and from one young woman to another, as he evades the devastation that awaits him in New Orleans. Catching sight of a freedom he’s never known, he must reclaim his body and mind from the spirit who watches over him, guides him, and seizes possession of him.



Genre: Literary Fiction

Praise for this book

"Masterfully lyrical and captivatingly atmospheric, None But the Righteous is a sweeping portrait of intersecting lives once buffeted by the winds of an apocalyptic hurricane, wandering toward the pull of belonging while simultaneously repulsed by it. Ham's journey to reclaim both his city and his own body is a story of epic proportions told by a fiercely talented writer. Chantal James is one to watch." - Zeyn Joukhadar

"In the tradition of Toni Morrison's Beloved, None But the Righteous is a gripping ghost story, a fevered dream of a young man's quest for freedom and belonging in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Chantal James has written a gorgeous page-turner." - Devi S Laskar

"At once spiritual and earthly, balancing with deft what is metaphysical and what is flesh, James' None But the Righteous ensnares, haunts, and fulfills that ancient, human need for narrative in carefully chosen language. You'll fall right into this world." - Dantiel W Moniz

"None but the Righteous is an homage to postcolonial and Southern literature yet a singularly incandescent marvel." - Margaret Wilkerson Sexton


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