

Part ghost story, part profound reflection on the evils of slavery, Morrison’s Pulitzer-winning masterpiece synthesises myriad themes and ideas into a scorching, emotionally devastating narrative.
‘Ms. Morrison’s versatility and technical and emotional range appear to know no bounds. If there were any doubts about her stature as a pre-eminent American novelist, of her own or any other generation, Beloved will put them to rest. In three words or less, it’s a hair-raiser.’ - Margaret Atwood
The winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize and a finalist for the 1987 National Book Award, Beloved remains American novelist Toni Morrison’s crowning achievement. Dedicated to the ‘Sixty Million and more’ Africans and their descendants who died as a result of the slave trade, the novel remains both a mesmerising family story and a landmark depiction of the legacy of slavery, both on individuals and America’s national psyche.
Set in the mid-1800’s in the aftermath of the American Civil War, Beloved chronicles the experiences of Sethe, abandoned by her sons and living with her youngest daughter in Cincinnati. Sethe’s is a house haunted by secrets; of the violent, traumatic memories of her former enslaved life at Sweet Home, Kentucky and by shameful secrets that refuse to stay buried.
When another Sweet Home survivor, Paul D, appears at Sethe’s door, his arrival heralds the mysterious coming of a woman, calling herself only ‘Beloved’. As the revenant Beloved makes her home with Sethe, so her life becomes increasingly devoted both to her ever-increasing and contrary demands for love and her insatiable need for atonement.
Deploying a lyrical, resonant and mythically charged style whilst remaining utterly rooted in the reality of her subject matter, Beloved exemplifies Toni Morrison’s talent for telling a vital story in the right way. In its refusal to shy away from the horrors experienced by Sethe, Morrison’s novel reflects the countless - often unspoken - atrocities committed by whites against people of colour throughout history. But Beloved is not a polemic. It interweaves ideas of motherhood, family, folklore and community, creating a narrative that is never less than utterly engrossing. The result is a rich, fully realised story that, as Jane Smiley writes in the Guardian, is ‘likely to mould or change a reader's sense of the world.’
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9780099760115
Number of pages: 352
Weight: 246 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 22 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'[Beloved] has left the realm of fiction and become a force of nature' - The Guardian
'A triumph' - Margaret Atwood, The New York Times Book Review
'A magnificent achievement... An American masterpiece' - A. S. Byatt, The Guardian
'There is something great in Beloved: a play of human voices, consciously exalted, perversely stressed, yet holding true. It gets you' - The New Yorker
'Toni Morrison has created a frightening, beautiful and intensely exciting novel about America and its past. I am not able to think of a better one' - The London Review of Books
'A work of genuine force... Beautifully written' - The Washington Post
'Toni Morrison makes me believe in God. She makes me believe in a divine being, because luck and genetics don't seem to come close to explaining her' - The Guardian
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“Truly Beloved !”
This book was so utterly beautifully written and sad. I was very moved throughout and couldn't put the book down. Also, left me in tears at the end but with sincere hope and faith, hopefully for all of mankind.... More
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