The Deep

By: Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes

Narrated by: Daveed Diggs

The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society - and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award-nominated song "The Deep" from Daveed Diggs' rap group, Clipping.

Yetu holds the memories for her people - water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners - who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one - the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.

Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities - and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.

Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past - and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity - and own who they really are.

Inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping for the This American Life episode "We Are in the Future", The Deep is vividly original and uniquely affecting.

©2019 Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes (P)2019 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

"Narrator Daveed Diggs brings his unique voice to Rivers Solomon's collaborative novella, The Deep, inspired by a song of the same name, written by Diggs's band, Clipping. Diggs explores his multilayered world through the voice of Yetu, the historian of an ocean-dwelling people called the Wajinru, descended from pregnant African women thrown overboard during the transatlantic slave trade." (AudioFile Magazine)

Deep

great perception of the amazing sea people, the ancestral memories and traumas, thought provoking context

I Cried.

Was it a little hard to follow and confusing at some points? Sure.

But was it worth it? Absolutely. As a black woman, I would recommend this book to any person who's ever struggled with the agony that comes with being a descendant of trauma. I'd give it to the grandchild of a holocaust survivor. Or to any Native American who still holds grief from a genocide they've never lived through. There's something about this book that is so 'human' and gutting in the best way that it had me in tears by the end. I've never seen such a profound way to look at memories and grief. 5 stars.

Great

At first I thought I wouldn not want to read about trauma, I live in America but the concept pulled me in . Would read mory stories like this

This book was dreamy

I was captured by this story and I really appreciated the narrators voice especially after listening to the afterword. Give this book a try!

Magnificent

I love this story. I hope this becomes a modern fairy tale and is passed down through the generations.

Great follow up to the song

I like the way it was told and I love the little snipets that are lyrics from the song. ever since I've stumbled upon the deep by clipping. I've been running the story through my head just thinking of more. I'm glad someone else took the time to give me more!

Best listen in a long time

If you listen often, and I do, this is the best exploration I have had in a long time. Feel like I learned while being embraced.

Heart wrenching beautiful hopeful

I was sucked in to this story. Beautifully written and conceptually brilliant. I wanted to keep reading at the end of the book.

Amazing!!!

Love the story. Love the metaphors. Love the message. Will be buying the physical copy.

Amazing Tail of Merpeople

The story telling was beautiful and informative to imagine how the pregnant women thrown overboard from slave ships adapted into merpeople. I’ve heard this story before but now I know for sure I believe the story.