Go Tell It on the Mountain Audiobook By James Baldwin, Roxane Gay - introduction cover art

Go Tell It on the Mountain

A Novel (Vintage International)

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

Go Tell It on the Mountain

By: James Baldwin, Roxane Gay - introduction
Narrated by: Roxane Gay, Joe Morton
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $18.00

Buy for $18.00

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

James Baldwin's haunting coming-of-age story, with a new introduction by Roxane Gay.

Originally published in 1953, Go Tell It on the Mountain was James Baldwin's first major work, based in part on his own childhood in Harlem. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a Pentecostal storefront church in Harlem. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle toward self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understood themselves.

©1952 James Baldwin (P)2024 Random House Audio African American Coming of Age Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Inspiring

Critic reviews

“With vivid imagery, with lavish attention to details, Mr. Baldwin has told his feverish story.”—The New York Times

“Brutal, objective and compassionate.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“It is written with poetic intensity and great narrative skill.”—Harper’s
Masterful Storytelling • Poetic Language • Exquisite Reading • Compelling Characters • Historical Authenticity
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
The book should be required reading. ..at least for Christian schools. But I found profound understanding in subject matter that once frightened me.

The characters are well written and knowable.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The language of the gospel as a mythology, the way he uses this as a scaffolding on which to hang the experiences of the book's family and the African-American experience itself, is brilliant.

Raw honesty, full of heart

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I have never heard a narrator tell a story like this. He could be reading the phone book and it would be riveting! Having grown up in a strict Christian home, this was heavy. But so worth it. Thank you Mr Baldwin & Mr Morton.

Magnificent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
At risk of writing an essay on this, I’m just going to highly recommend it to anyone interested in great autobiographical fiction, great writing, brilliant narrative, and frankly moving, conflicting, intensely human themes…

I’m not a good enough thinker or writer to put into words all I’m feeling after reading this, but as someone who grew up in similarly religious environments (though white, and 60-70 years later), who struggled to cling to religious fire in hopes it would destroy my teenager (not hetero) lust, who grew up with a hypocritical deacon step father, etc, I really highly related to John’s struggle.. Too much of this is oh so familiar, but also much of it falls far outside my experience, most obviously not being a black man growing up in Harlem while Jim Crow raged at peak power in The South.. Still, I have empathy, and just felt taken on a roller coaster up spiritual heights and valleys, jerked around between the themes of light and darkness, the struggle and ecstasy of the spirit and the carnal. So much intensity packed into a relatively short listen.

Anyway, this is becoming much longer than intended. The last point I really want to emphasize is the brilliance of the performance. This is one of the best narrations I’ve ever listened to, fiction or nonfiction. Brilliant work! 10/10

Truly Incredible..

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The style, the language, the perfect narration, but above all the story. The subtlety of the story within the the story places Baldwin in class with Hemingway.

Literally a masterpiece

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
So vivid and emotional. This is my first James Baldwin book. Looking forward to the next one!

So good

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Descriptive, emotional, realistic and honest. Protest literature at its best. My second James Baldwin novel. I'm planning to read more!

Amazing Writing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
James Baldwin’s first novel. It seemed appropriate to read it now during Black History Month. Listened to the audio version with a new introduction by Roxane Gay and narrated by Joe Morton. Thoroughly enjoyed this coming of age story with the backdrop of Harlem and the Pentecostal church. It was published in 1953. It’s a semi-autographical novel telling the story of John Grimes on his 14th birthday and detailing his struggles with his “sinful nature”, his preacher step-father who is especially harsh on him, and his relationships with his aunt, mother, half-brother and half-sister. It includes what Baldwin titled ‘Prayers’ told through the eyes of Florence his aunt, his mother Elizabeth and his stepfather Gabriel. Those sections are quite telling of the times and introduces family themes as well as spiritual ones. The writing was concise and the voice of each character was clear and compelling. A great historical fiction intertwined with Baldwin’s life memories of his experiences as a youth growing up in Harlem in a restrictive Christian family. If you like historical fiction and don’t mind the overlay of a born-again Pentecostal church you’ll enjoy this timeless novel.

Coming of age story…

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The portrayal of characters and their religious experiences shows a masterful examination of human psychology and longing for meaningful relationships. This stands above anything by Camus or Faulkner. Highly recommended, timeless literary masterpiece.

Greatest work of American literature

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The title could have been "The Lives In The Life Of John", as that's what's presented in this wrenching yet loving story.

The 24-hour period the primary story is about is used to enlighten the back-stories of the people in life of the protagonist, John. Some of the people had been enslaved - all were dealing with Jim Crow, and Christian fundamentalism (some credibly say pentecostalism) provides over-arching messaging that most of the book's characters chose for their life's structure. As is always the case with any professed faith, those spiritual tenets worked better for some than for others. But the 24/7 pressure for acceptance of and submission to said faith tenets was all-consuming in John's circle.

Much irony is presented without using snark. (Bitterness or snark are sometimes expressed by the characters - but not directly by the 3rd-person narrator.)

The book ends with a significant beginning, but fully portrays what has led up to this point.

Shout-out to the narrators for their exquisite reading/performing of this incredible book.

Haunting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews