
Black Is the Body
Stories from My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, and Mine
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Narrated by:
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Emily Bernard
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By:
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Emily Bernard
“Blackness is an art, not a science. It is a paradox: intangible and visceral; a situation and a story. It is the thread that connects these essays, but its significance as an experience emerges randomly, unpredictably.... Race is the story of my life, and therefore black is the body of this book.”
In these 12 deeply personal, connected essays, Bernard details the experience of growing up Black in the South with a family name inherited from a White man, surviving a random stabbing at a New Haven coffee shop, marrying a White man from the North and bringing him home to her family, adopting two children from Ethiopia, and living and teaching in a primarily White New England college town. Each of these essays sets out to discover a new way of talking about race and of telling the truth as the author has lived it.
"Black Is the Body is one of the most beautiful, elegant memoirs I've ever read. It's about race, it's about womanhood, it's about friendship, it's about a life of the mind, and also a life of the body. But more than anything, it's about love. I can't praise Emily Bernard enough for what she has created in these pages." (Elizabeth Gilbert)
Winner of the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose
Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and Kirkus Reviews
One of Maureen Corrigan's 10 Unputdownable Reads of the Year
©2019 Emily Bernard (P)2019 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
"Black Is the Body is one of the most beautiful, elegant memoirs I've ever read. It's about race, it's about womanhood, it's about friendship, it's about a life of the mind, and also a life of the body. But more than anything, it's about love. I can't praise Emily Bernard enough for what she has created in these pages." (Elizabeth Gilbert)
"My very favorite book that I have read so far this year... It’s really life changing. If you get no other book this year, get Black Is the Body by Emily Bernard." (Ann Patchett)
"Of the 12 essays here, there's not one that even comes close to being forgettable. Bernard's language is fresh, poetically compact, and often witty.... Bernard proves herself to be a revelatory storyteller of race in America who can hold her own with some of those great writers she teaches." (Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air)
Not what I expected
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Black is the body is beautifuly written and read.
Black is the body is beautifuly written and read.
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Excellent
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I loved being admitted to this intimate lovingly-written world of becoming and being. Read by the author, the stories felt like a warm visit with a new friend, sharing her stories both specific and universal.
If you're interested in race in America, beautiful prose, or honest and courageous storytelling I highly reccomend.
Intimate, lyrical reflections on race, womanhood,
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engaging
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Compelling
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Black is the Body is a must read.
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Unique, compelling, exquisite
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Good read
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Beautifully written
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