A young Black man is called irresistibly to farmland he's never seen, where a fateful feud simmers between a pastor and his protege. A thunderous reimagining of David and Goliath reimagined as the story of one unforgettable family, living in the era of the Great Migration and in the heart of the American South.
In 1910, at the age of fourteen, David Jeremiah Lightfoot inherits his father's farm in Mississippi: a barren, cursed plot of land once known as Goliath. David has never lived outside Chicago, but is determined to claim and farm the land more effectively than his father ever could. Once there, David confronts giants both literal and figurative. And soon a high-stakes struggle with the burden of his ancestors' legacy will intertwine his fate with that of his family, the land, and the surrounding community.
At once a profound, heartfelt story about one tight-knit family and an elegant, propulsive tragedy, Goliath weaves together themes of destiny and redemption. It is a revelatory meditation on the deep, troubled ties between Black Americans and the very ground on which past generations toiled and lived.
PRAISE FOR GOLIATH
'Just a few pages into Goliath and I was certain I had the work of a new American master in my hands. The beautiful, brutal landscape, the love, the evil, the joys and sorrows of one family left me feeling I had just lived a second life and body and soul were changed. That's what a classic does. That's what this is.' ABRAHAM VERGHESE, author of The Covenant of Water
'Please read this new masterpiece. Robertson has made a book I cannot and will likely never shed. I am as shook as can be at the spirit running through Goliath. You will be moved.' KIESE LAYMON, author of Heavy and Good, God
'Through his singularly kind, keen narrator, Robertson sings. Goliath is poetic and textured, its characters near and deeply knowing. It enriches the reader in all the ways that matter. What an honor to witness this writer's nascence.' JESMYN WARD, author of Sing, Unburied, Sing and Let Us Descend
