How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family's Story of Hope and Survival in the American South

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Esau McCaulley

How Far to the Promised Land

One Black Family's Story of Hope and Survival in the American South

Esau McCaulley

$40.95 $34.45

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Convergent
17 December 2024

Diaries, letters & journals; Social mobility; Advice on parenting

From the New York Times contributing opinion writer and award-winning author of Reading While Black, a riveting intergenerational account of his family’s search for home and hope

“Powerful . . . McCaulley uses examples of his own family’s stories of survival over time to remind readers that some paths to the promised land have detours along the way.”—The Root

A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

For much of his life, Esau McCaulley was taught to see himself as an exception: someone who, through hard work, faith, and determination, overcame childhood poverty, anti-Black racism, and an absent father to earn a job as a university professor and a life in the middle class. But that narrative was called into question one night, when McCaulley answered the phone and learned that his father—whose absence defined his upbringing—died in a car crash. McCaulley was being asked to deliver his father’s eulogy, to make sense of his complicated legacy in a country that only accepts Black men on the condition that they are exceptional, hardworking, perfect. The resulting effort sent McCaulley back through his family history, seeking to understand the community that shaped him. In these pages, we meet his great-grandmother Sophia, a tenant farmer born with the gift of prophecy who scraped together a life in Jim Crow Alabama; his mother, Laurie, who raised four kids alone in an era when single Black mothers were demonized as “welfare queens”; and a cast of family, friends, and neighbors who won small victories in a world built to swallow Black lives. With profound honesty and compassion, he raises questions that implicate us all: What does each person’s struggle to build a life teach us about what we owe each other? About what it means to be human? How Far to the Promised Land is a thrilling and tender epic about being Black in America. It’s a book that questions our too-simple narratives about poverty and upward mobility; a book in which the people normally written out of the American Dream are given voice.

By: Esau McCaulley
Imprint: Convergent
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 132mm, Spine: 12mm
Weight: 192g
ISBN: 9780593241103
ISBN 10: 059324110X
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 17 December 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Esau McCaulley is The Jonathan Blanchard Associate Professor of New Testament and Public Theology at Wheaton College. He is the author of numerous books, including How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the American South, Reading While Black, and the children’s books Josey Johnson’s Hair and the Holy Spirit and Andy Johnson and the March for Justice. A contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, his writings have also appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and Christianity Today.

Reviews for How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family's Story of Hope and Survival in the American South

“With uncompromising honesty and deep introspection, McCaulley complicates the narrative of ‘overcoming racism and poverty as a hero.’ . . . Powerful and necessary.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A thoughtfully written book that offers heartfelt, empathetic lessons without preaching to the choir.”—Kirkus Reviews “Esau McCaulley’s riveting memoir holds together tensions that many of us pry apart: systemic injustice and personal responsibility, accountability and forgiveness, honesty and sympathy. This book is prophetic without being preachy, and heartwarming without being cloying. . . . A triumph of storytelling.”—Tish Harrison Warren, author of Liturgy of the Ordinary “A riveting book that invites you into the personal journey of one of the finest writers alive today.”—Beth Moore, president of Living Proof Ministries and bestselling author of All My Knotted-Up Life “In these pages are words that redeem time and refresh the human spirit. . . . The timeliness of McCaulley’s honest, hope-filled story—told with depth, precision, and purpose—feels like a balm for the weary soul.”—Charlie Dates, senior pastor of Salem Baptist and Progressive Baptist “As soon as I finished, I wanted to reread. McCaulley is already recognized as a great scholar and essayist, but this is his best writing yet. The storytelling here is both poetic and prophetic, free of both superficiality and cynicism. Read this book and the words will linger with you.”—Russell Moore, editor in chief of Christianity Today “McCaulley gives his readers an offering to peer into the window of his soul and that of his southern Black family. It is a story of the convergence of structural racism and the grace of God, which carries them on as they traverse the rugged terrain of life to the promised land.”—Ekemini Uwan, public theologian and NAACP Image Award–nominated co-author of Truth’s Table