Blessings and Disasters
A Story of Alabama

Quotes

"In this extraordinary book, Alexis Okeowo examines Alabama as only someone who grew up there could, with care, with criticism, with hope. Here, our much maligned state, the butt of the joke, the example of what not to do, looks much more like what I knew it to be growing up—complex, yes, but also, simply, just like every other state in a union that continues to grapple with its sordid past."
—Yaa Gyasi, author of Homegoing and Transcendent Kingdom

"I have never wished that a writer was from Mississippi as much as Blessings and Disasters made me wish Alexis Okeowo and I shared a home state. Instead, Alabama, you got one! The majestic ruptures Okeowo finds in Alabama will be written about for decades. Okeowo is showing out in this layered offering, and we are so lucky for it."
—Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir

"Okeowo offers a wide-ranging and nuanced account of her home state. . . . Probing and sumptuously written, this makes for an entrancingly ground-level and empathetic view of Alabama’s past and present."
—Publishers Weekly, *starred review*

"Outsiders like to define Alabama through oppositions—reality vs. myth, dire poverty vs. reckless wealth, violence vs. natural beauty, and Blacks vs. whites. Alexis Okeowo turns these oppositions into gripping complications, tracking the collective histories and individual lives of Creek Indians, Latinos, whites, African Americans, and West Africans, and combining a reporter’s acuity with a storyteller’s empathy."
—Margo Jefferson, author of Negroland and Constructing a Nervous System

"Timely and engrossing—Okeowo's exploration of 'outsiders' in Alabama sheds light on the divided face of our nation and lovingly charts the push and pull of the places we call home."
—Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, author of My Monticello

Awards

• New Yorker Best Books of the Year
• Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year