The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed
overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim
the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly
imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award–nominated song “The
Deep” from Daveed Diggs’s rap group clipping.
Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants
of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who
live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be
remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the
historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.
Yetu remembers for
everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and
terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the
surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the
responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long
ago.
Yetu will learn more
than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future
of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim
the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.
Inspired by a song
produced by the rap group Clipping for the This American Life episode
“We Are In The Future,” The Deep is vividly original and
uniquely affecting.