Yellow Wife
Born on a plantation in Charles City Virginia, Pheby Delores Brown, has lived a privileged life. Shielded by her mother’s position as the plantation's medicine woman, and cherished by the Master's sister, she is set apart from the others on the plantation, belonging to neither world.
Freedom on her 18th birthday has been promised to her, but instead of the idyllic life she imagined with her true love, Essex Henry, Pheby is forced to leave the only home she has ever known and unexpectedly finds herself thrust into the bowels of slavery at the infamous “Devil’s Half-Acre,” a jail where the enslaved are broken, tortured, and sold every day in Richmond, Virginia. There Pheby is exposed not just to her Jailor’s cruelty but also to his contradictions. To survive Pheby will have to outwit him but soon faces the ultimate sacrifice.
“A fully immersive, intricately crafted story inspired by the pages of history. In Pheby, Sadeqa Johnson has created a woman whose struggle to survive and to protect the ones she loves will have readers turning the pages as fast as their fingers can fly. Simply enthralling.”
Lisa Wingate, New York Times Bestselling Author
noteable selections
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*A Barnes & Noble January 2021 Book Club Pick*
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*A 2021 Most Anticipated Selection by Oprahmag.com and Buzzfeed*
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*A Hurston Wright Legacy Award finalist*
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*Winner of the Library of Virginia’s 2022 Literary People’s Choice Award*
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*A BCALA Literary Honoree*
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*NPR’S Best Books of the Year Pick - 2021*
Praise for Yellow Wife
"Wholly engrossing, exquisitely researched, so timely and suspenseful, I highly recommend this novel."
Kathleen Grissom New York Times Bestselling author of Glory Over Everything and The Kitchen House
"Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson is a page-turner of a novel that is utterly transporting. Johnson's rich historical detail and enchanting prose sucked me into another world from the very first page. The book is a reminder that the inner lives of black women are as complicated as they are fascinating and make for some of the most affecting literature in American history. I loved it."
Attica Locke, author of Bluebird, Bluebird
“Yellow Wife is a heartbreaking stunner of a book. Johnson deftly creates a cast of characters based on real historical figures and events that transport the reader to the horrors of the slave trade of the pre-war South. Exquisitely researched and richly crafted. I was utterly riveted.”
Aimie K. Runyan, internationally bestselling author of Daughters of the Night Sky and Across the Winding River
A fully immersive, intricately crafted story inspired by the pages of history. In Pheby, Sadeqa Johnson has created a woman whose struggle to survive and to protect the ones she loves will have readers turning the pages as fast as their fingers can fly. Simply enthralling.”
Lisa Wingate, New York Times Bestselling Author of Before We Were Yours and The Book of Lost Friends.
REVIEWS FOR YELLOW WIFE
