The Unsettled

A Novel

By: Ayana Mathis

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • WINNER OF THE GABE HUDSON PRIZE • From the best-selling author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, a searing multi-generational novel—set in the 1980s in racially and politically turbulent Philadelphia and in the tiny town of Bonaparte, Alabama—about a mother fighting for her sanity and survival

"Emotionally propulsive ... Through a chorus of distinctive and virtuosic voices, we gather the story of a mother, a daughter, and the land that both unites and divides them.”–Oprah Daily • "Showcases Ayana Mathis's grace on the page, as writer, as storyteller. A book to be read and re-read."–Jesmyn Ward, author of Let Us Descend

Two bold, utopic communities are at the heart of Ayana Mathis’s searing follow-up to her bestselling debut, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie. Bonaparte, Alabama–once 10,000 glorious Black-owned acres–is now a ghost town vanishing to depopulation, crooked developers, and an eerie mist closing in on its shoreline. Dutchess Carson, Bonaparte's fiery, tough-talking protector, fights to keep its remaining one thousand acres in the hands of the last five residents. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, her estranged daughter Ava is drawn into Ark–a seductive, radical group with a commitment to Black self-determination in the spirit of the Black Panthers and MOVE, with a dash of the Weather Underground’s violent zeal. Ava’s eleven-year-old son Toussaint wants out–his future awaits him on his grandmother’s land, where the sounds of cicada and frog song might save him if only he can make it there.

In Mathis’s electrifying novel, Bonaparte is both mythic landscape and spiritual inheritance, and 1980s Philadelphia is its raw, darkly glittering counterpoint. The Unsettled is a spellbinding portrait of two fierce women reckoning with the steep cost of resistance: What legacy will we leave our children? Where can we be free?

©2023 Ayana Mathis (P)2023 Random House Audio

Captivating

I absolutely loved this book but I love Buhni Turpin’s narration more than anything. I’m glad I stumbled on this gem.

So good

It’s about family pride strength and self worth. Land passed down from generations of people who are put together through love. The narrator is excellent

Avoid if you’re looking to feel good

This was a very heavy dark tale. It was well written, but just filled with horrible thing after horrible thing happening to these characters. I have never enjoyed a book less in my life and I am an avid reader. The narration was pitch perfect as usual with Bahni Turpin. Looks like a lot of people loved it and I love that for the author. I just felt it necessary to leave this review to warn people who are looking for something uplifting or even a bit lighter.

Hauntingly beautiful

A brilliant masterpiece. What a gifted storyteller. I will think of 248 and Bonaparte often.

Rushed ending

The ending was too short and felt rushed, I would have liked a full ending showcasing Toussaint meeting Duchess for the first time.

Well that was depressing

I liked the book and loved the narrator. The story was sad and depressing. But on a scale of depressing books I would give it a solid 10

Telling

I love the narration, which made it a bit easier to understand. The storyline is complex, yet, it speaks to the unsettling of many Afro/black Americans in that legacy, oft times, is elusive. Ava and Tucson journey was complicated by the fact, that Tousaint’s Dad, Cairo was a bit of a charlatan/revolutionary; a bit, like a cult leader; while Ava, seem not to be able to extract herself from his allure. A compelling read…