Song of Solomon

Written by Toni Morrison

A man's quest for flight leads him through a world of secrets and dreams.

4.2/5 Goodreads · 133,915 ratings

338 pages

$16.00Save 7%

In stock. Also at Amazon or Bookshop.

Bookroo's summary

Milkman Dead's life begins with a rooftop leap and a lifelong quest for flight. Journeying from a rustbelt city to his family's roots, he encounters a vivid tapestry of strivers, seeresses, liars, and assassins. As he navigates this richly imagined Black world, Milkman must confront the mysteries of his past and the dreams that drive him. Will he find the freedom he seeks, or will the weight of history hold him down? Discover a tale of ambition, identity, and the search for transcendence in a world where the line between reality and dreams blurs.

From the publisher

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - An official Oprah Winfrey’s “The Books That Help Me Through” selection - With this brilliantly imagined novel, the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner transfigures the coming-of-age story as audaciously as Saul Bellow or Gabriel García Márquez. Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. As Morrison follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s origins, she introduces an entire cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the inhabitants of a fully realized Black world.

At a glance