Dominion
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
"This novel will grab you in the gut and hold you there. It’s absolutely outstanding. Once I entered this world I didn’t want to leave.” —Roxane Gay, author of Opinions
"The cast delivers powerfully nuanced performances. [Narrator] Dion Graham’s Sabre is both cringe-inducingly unctuous and disturbingly seductive. [Narrator] Bahni Turpin’s Priscilla is piercing, hilarious and sympathetic in her human emotion...[Narrator] Angel Pean’s performance is as multifaceted and resilient as her character’s name..."—BookPage
In this taut Southern family drama featuring multicast narration, the sins of a favorite son rock a small Mississippi town.
Reverend Sabre Winfrey, Jr., shepherd of the Seven Seals Missionary Baptist Church, believes in God, his own privilege, and enterprise. He owns the barbershop and the radio station, and generally keeps an iron hand on every aspect of society in Dominion, Mississippi. He and his wife, Priscilla, have five boys; the youngest, Emanuel, is called Wonderboy—no one sings prettier, runs as fast, or turns as many heads. But Wonderboy, his father, and all the structures in place that keep them on top are not as righteous as they seem to be. And when Wonderboy is caught off guard by an encounter with a stranger, he finds himself confronted by questions he’d never imagined. His response sends shock waves through the entire community.
Priscilla and Diamond, two women who love these men, bear witness to their charms and bear the brunt of their choices. Through their eyes and their stories, Dominion offers an intricate, intimate view of how secrets control us, how shame stifles us, how silence implicates us, and how even love plays a role in the everyday violence and casual sins of the powerful.
A brilliantly crafted Black Southern family drama told with the captivating force, humor, and tenderness carried in the hearts of these women, Addie E. Citchens’s Dominion wrestles with the many brutal, sinister ways in which we are shaped by fear and patriarchy, and studies how we might yet choose to break free.
"Narrator Bahni Turpin delivers his mother's biting commentary with hilarious sarcasm...Diamond, portrayed by [narrator] Angel Pean in a silky, sensual narration, is filled with love for the unreachable boy...[Narrator] Andre Giles's third-person interludes offer haunting glimpses of Emanuel's life of power and perversion."—AudioFile
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
We were absolutely floored by this raw, searing novel. Secrets run deep in Dominion, Mississippi, where the Reverend Sabre Winfrey Jr. and his glamorous wife, Priscilla, preside over the Seven Seals Missionary Baptist Church. Their youngest son, Emanuel—known to all as Wonderboy—is handsome, talented, and beloved, but his life takes a dark turn after a chance encounter upends the family’s carefully maintained image. Told through the alternating perspectives of Priscilla and Diamond, the young woman who loves Wonderboy, the novel enticingly peels back layers of privilege, silence, and complicity in a community where the powerful protect their own. Addie E. Citchens’ debut brims with tension, sharply observed characters, and an unflinching eye for how fear and patriarchy warp lives. An all-star voice cast including Bahni Turpin and Dion Graham captures the intimacy, bite, and heartbreak in every scene. Dominion is an enthralling listen that’s unsettling and mesmerizing in equal measure.
