How Far to the Promised Land

“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 New York Times bestselling author of All My Knotted-Up Life “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 brisk and engaging narrative full of practical and spiritual wisdom. . . . This is a revelatory look at the U.S. South, race, poverty, and the strength needed not only to live with one’s past but to make peace with it.”—Jemar Tisby, New York Times bestselling author of The Color of Compromise “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) “As soon as I finished this book, I wanted to reread it. 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