In her second National Book Award (NBA)-winning title, Ward returns to Bois Sauvage, MS, where her first NBA winner, Salvage the Bones, played out. Bones' Skeetah and Eschelle appear momentarily here. Jojo, 13, and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their black grandparents. Their drug-addicted mother Leonie is mostly absent, until she returns announcing a road trip to collect their white father from prison. The epic journey lays bare racial, societal, and familial divides, revealing a tragic landscape still struggling with the horrific legacy of enslavement and privilege. A trio of newbie narrators make audacious debuts; each is superb. Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Jojo is old before his time as Kayla's protector. Rutina Wesley as Leonie achingly inhabits the limbo between desperate and determined. Chris Chalk as Richie—who slips into the car on the return ride—is caught between brash and lost. With such talent, the production should have been pitch-perfect, but the jarring disconnect among narrators when voicing the same characters in their separate chapters—Harrison's Jojo, for example, is impossibly patient; Wesley's Jojo sounds unnecessarily surly—mars a potentially spectacular performance. VERDICT Directing flaws aside, libraries will want to satisfy eager literature lovers with all available formats. ["Lyrical yet tough, Ward's distilled language effectively captures the hard lives, fraught relationships, and spiritual depth of her characters": LJ 5/15/2017 starred review of the Scribner hc.]—Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

A trio of performers demonstrate their considerable vocal talents in the audio edition of the latest from National Book Award–winner Ward (for Salvage the Bones). The novel's multithreaded structure may take a bit of time for listeners to grasp, particularly given that one of the three narrators is the ghost of Richie, a teen prisoner who was murdered many decades earlier. The other two protagonists—a 13-year-old boy named Jojo and his drug-addicted mother, Leonie—interact with both the living and the dead in their daily lives in a narrative that links past racial violence with a current family crisis. The elements eventually meld together seamlessly. Jojo's lingering sense of innocence and earnestness on the cusp of manhood shines through in the gentle cadence of Harrison's voice. Actor Wesley brings both edge and vulnerability to her smoky-voiced portrayal of Leonie. The listening experience requires attention to detail, but the solid performances are a great match for the material. A Scribner hardcover. (Sept.)