Freedom

About this item

“Incredibly perceptive. . . . A stunning testimony from a talented writer who strips off false facades with honesty and vulnerability, and leaves us with a searing question: ‘Can you build a nation based on love?’” —mónica teresa ortiz, BookPage (starred review) ONE OF LIT HUB 'S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2026 A radically vulnerable and virtuosic inquiry into the pursuit of freedom and the interminable nature of struggle, from the award-winning author of What We Lose Weaving personal reflections with piercing insight and expansive vision across nine brilliant essays, Zinzi Clemmons explores the complexities of the elusive concept of freedom. As the daughter of a South African mother and a Trinidadian America father, she recounts growing up in the largely white, affluent town of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania—and her frequent travels to Johannesburg, where the lofty promise of freedom was all around