Synopses & Reviews
National Bestseller
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year
"Sexton takes on [Toni Morrison's artful invocation of the ghost] in her new novel The Revisioners...She writes with such a clear sense of place and time that each of these intermingled stories feels essential and dramatic in its own way." Ron Charles, The Washington Post
"A powerful tale of racial tensions across generations." People
In 1924, Josephine is the proud owner of a thriving farm. As a child, she channeled otherworldly power to free herself from slavery. Now her new neighbor, a white woman named Charlotte, seeks her company, and an uneasy friendship grows between them. But Charlotte has also sought solace in the Ku Klux Klan, a relationship that jeopardizes Josephine’s family.
Nearly one hundred years later, Josephine’s descendant, Ava, is a single mother who has just lost her job. She moves in with her white grandmother, Martha, a wealthy but lonely woman who pays Ava to be her companion. But Martha’s behavior soon becomes erratic, then threatening, and Ava must escape before her story and Josephine’s converge.
The Revisioners explores the depths of women’s relationships — powerful women and marginalized women, healers and survivors. It is a novel about the bonds between mothers and their children, the dangers that upend those bonds. At its core, The Revisioners ponders generational legacies, the endurance of hope, and the undying promise of freedom.
"[A] stunning new novel...Sexton’s writing is clear and uncluttered, the dialogue authentic, with all the cadences of real speech...This is a novel about the women, the mothers." New York Times Book Review
Review
"I was mesmerized by The Revisioners...Was mesmerized? Am mesmerized, will remain mesmerized. Sexton’s novel is extraordinary, and its effects will go on and on." R. O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries
Review
"The Revisioners intricately probes and reveals the depths of women’s relationships, from the powerful to the marginalized, especially the bonds across the color line that make and break those relationships, and their generational legacies." Ibram X. Kendi, The Atlantic
Review
"This second novel from Sexton confirms the storytelling gifts she displayed in her lushly readable debut, A Kind of Freedom...At the intriguing crossroads of the seen and the unseen lies a weave among five generations of women." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
About the Author
Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, born and raised in New Orleans, studied creative writing at Dartmouth College and law at UC Berkeley. Her debut novel, A Kind of Freedom, was long-listed for the National Book Award and the Northern California Book Award, won the Crook's Corner Book Prize, and was the recipient of the First Novelist Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family.