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From an award-winning writer of "riotous and dazzling" stories (Deesha Philyaw), a debut novel that paints a sweeping portrait of a family and its history in the American South, from Reconstruction to the present day
At thirty-two, Aubrey Lamb is stumbling into adulthood. An underpaid gig worker in Washington, DC, she's grieving the recent loss of her father and the end of a serious relationship. When Aubrey learns that she has inherited a shared stake in a sizable Tennessee farm from her father, she sees an opportunity to get out of the city-and to erase a mounting pile of debt.
Watching her arrival with great interest are four ghosts-Aubrey's ancestors, who've staked their own claims to the farm, and who never hesitate to pass judgment on the choices and mistakes made by the living, whether romantic, financial, or sartorial. As Aubrey reconnects with her living family and faces pressure from developers, another story unfolds in parallel: the history of the land, beginning with its purchase by Thomas, Aubrey's great-grandfather and one of the first Black landowners in his community. Though Thomas hoped to give his children a homestead on which they could flourish, the
land proves to be a burdensome inheritance. Over the years, it divides the family, turning Thomas' descendants against each other and drawing the attention of neighbors eager to wrest the land from Black hands, culminating in a catastrophic tragedy that splinters the family and echoes down through the decades.
Now, as the clock ticks on a potential sale of the farm, the ghosts fear expulsion from the home they've made, and Aubrey must weigh the hopes and burdens of her forebears with the very real needs of her future.
An expansive family saga perfect for fans of Honorée Fanonne Jeffers and Margaret Wilkerson Sexton and told with a wry and very modern voice, The Great Wherever is at once grand and intimate; it explores the ways we learn to define ourselves through and against our family, how we carry on after loss, and how the past lives on in all of us. Shannon Sanders is the author of the linked short story collection Company, which won the 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes' Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, was named a Publishers Weekly and Debutiful Best Book of 2023, and was shortlisted for the 2024 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous publication s, including One Story, Sewanee Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Electric Literature, and received a PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband and three sons.
Praise for Company:
"A deftly woven tapestry that scrupulously depicts familial ties and estrangement, richly told with a nuance that allows each character dignity and grace."
-Jonathan Escoffery, The New York Times Book Review
"[Company] captures Black familial relations beyond the frame. . . . Sanders extracts comedy from the formidable situations that erupt in people's lives―divorce, financial struggle, aging, death and childlessness. Whether chosen or biological, who we consider family can shape how we cope with drama."
-The Washington Post
"Sanders' writing is what we need right now: stories of Black Americans living and questioning and existing as families in this complicated world. She doesn't focus on Black trauma...Instead, she writes about regular people living their regular, messy lives; her characters are both funny and relatable."
-Washington City Paper
"Company is a rich and distinct collection that announces Shannon Sanders as an exciting new voice in contemporary literature."
-BOMB
"[A] rare feat. . . . Sanders weaves the narrative fabric of her stories with the utmost care, creating an intricate and lively look into the many beautiful moments in the lives of one Black family."
-Chicago Review of Books' "
At thirty-two, Aubrey Lamb is stumbling into adulthood. An underpaid gig worker in Washington, DC, she's grieving the recent loss of her father and the end of a serious relationship. When Aubrey learns that she has inherited a shared stake in a sizable Tennessee farm from her father, she sees an opportunity to get out of the city-and to erase a mounting pile of debt.
Watching her arrival with great interest are four ghosts-Aubrey's ancestors, who've staked their own claims to the farm, and who never hesitate to pass judgment on the choices and mistakes made by the living, whether romantic, financial, or sartorial. As Aubrey reconnects with her living family and faces pressure from developers, another story unfolds in parallel: the history of the land, beginning with its purchase by Thomas, Aubrey's great-grandfather and one of the first Black landowners in his community. Though Thomas hoped to give his children a homestead on which they could flourish, the
land proves to be a burdensome inheritance. Over the years, it divides the family, turning Thomas' descendants against each other and drawing the attention of neighbors eager to wrest the land from Black hands, culminating in a catastrophic tragedy that splinters the family and echoes down through the decades.
Now, as the clock ticks on a potential sale of the farm, the ghosts fear expulsion from the home they've made, and Aubrey must weigh the hopes and burdens of her forebears with the very real needs of her future.
An expansive family saga perfect for fans of Honorée Fanonne Jeffers and Margaret Wilkerson Sexton and told with a wry and very modern voice, The Great Wherever is at once grand and intimate; it explores the ways we learn to define ourselves through and against our family, how we carry on after loss, and how the past lives on in all of us. Shannon Sanders is the author of the linked short story collection Company, which won the 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes' Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, was named a Publishers Weekly and Debutiful Best Book of 2023, and was shortlisted for the 2024 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous publication s, including One Story, Sewanee Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Electric Literature, and received a PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband and three sons.
Praise for Company:
"A deftly woven tapestry that scrupulously depicts familial ties and estrangement, richly told with a nuance that allows each character dignity and grace."
-Jonathan Escoffery, The New York Times Book Review
"[Company] captures Black familial relations beyond the frame. . . . Sanders extracts comedy from the formidable situations that erupt in people's lives―divorce, financial struggle, aging, death and childlessness. Whether chosen or biological, who we consider family can shape how we cope with drama."
-The Washington Post
"Sanders' writing is what we need right now: stories of Black Americans living and questioning and existing as families in this complicated world. She doesn't focus on Black trauma...Instead, she writes about regular people living their regular, messy lives; her characters are both funny and relatable."
-Washington City Paper
"Company is a rich and distinct collection that announces Shannon Sanders as an exciting new voice in contemporary literature."
-BOMB
"[A] rare feat. . . . Sanders weaves the narrative fabric of her stories with the utmost care, creating an intricate and lively look into the many beautiful moments in the lives of one Black family."
-Chicago Review of Books' "