How Far to the Promised Land
One Black Family's Story of Hope and Survival in the American South
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Narrated by:
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Esau McCaulley
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By:
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Esau McCaulley
About this listen
From the New York Times contributing opinion writer and award-winning author of Reading While Black, a riveting intergenerational account of his family’s search for home and hope
“Powerful . . . McCaulley uses examples of his own family’s stories of survival over time to remind readers that some paths to the promised land have detours along the way.”—The Root
A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
For much of his life, Esau McCaulley was taught to see himself as an exception: someone who, through hard work, faith, and determination, overcame childhood poverty, anti-Black racism, and an absent father to earn a job as a university professor and a life in the middle class.
But that narrative was called into question one night, when McCaulley answered the phone and learned that his father—whose absence defined his upbringing—died in a car crash. McCaulley was being asked to deliver his father’s eulogy, to make sense of his complicated legacy in a country that only accepts Black men on the condition that they are exceptional, hardworking, perfect.
The resulting effort sent McCaulley back through his family history, seeking to understand the community that shaped him. In this book, we meet his great-grandmother Sophia, a tenant farmer born with the gift of prophecy who scraped together a life in Jim Crow Alabama; his mother, Laurie, who raised four kids alone in an era when single Black mothers were demonized as “welfare queens”; and a cast of family, friends, and neighbors who won small victories in a world built to swallow Black lives. With profound honesty and compassion, he raises questions that implicate us all: What does each person’s struggle to build a life teach us about what we owe each other? About what it means to be human?
How Far to the Promised Land is a thrilling and tender epic about being Black in America. It’s a book that questions our too-simple narratives about poverty and upward mobility; a book in which the people normally written out of the American Dream are given voice.
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Critic reviews
“Esau McCaulley’s riveting memoir holds together tensions that many of us pry apart: systemic injustice and personal responsibility, accountability and forgiveness, honesty and sympathy. This book is prophetic without being preachy, and heartwarming without being cloying. . . . A triumph of storytelling.”—Tish Harrison Warren, author of Liturgy of the Ordinary
“In these pages are words that redeem time and refresh the human spirit. . . . The timeliness of McCaulley’s honest, hope-filled story—told with depth, precision, and purpose—feels like a balm for the weary soul.”—Charlie Dates, senior pastor of Salem Baptist and Progressive Baptist
“With uncompromising honesty and deep introspection, McCaulley complicates the narrative of ‘overcoming racism and poverty as a hero.’ . . . Powerful and necessary.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“McCaulley gives his readers an offering to peer into the window of his soul and that of his southern Black family. It is a story of the convergence of structural racism and the grace of God, which carries them on as they traverse the rugged terrain of life to the promised land.”—Ekemini Uwan, public theologian and NAACP Image Award–nominated co-author of Truth’s Table
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- Narrated by: Ben Austen, Patina Miller, Harry Lennix, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 32 mins
- Original Recording
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In 1992, the deadliest year in Chicago’s history, seven-year-old Dantrell Davis was shot and killed in front of his elementary school inside the public housing complex Cabrini-Green. What happened to Dantrell led to a truce among Chicago’s gangs, but it also ignited a national panic about poverty and violence in America’s cities. Dantrell’s name would soon be used to demolish all of Chicago’s high-rise public housing, displacing tens of thousands of low-income families.
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A Gripping and Necessary Work
- By booklover on 11-24-24
By: Ben Austen, and others
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Ho Tactics
- How to MindF**k a Man into Spending, Spoiling, and Sponsoring
- By: G. L. Lambert
- Narrated by: Patrick Stevens
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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I have discovered a group of women who refuse to be exploited, are immune to manipulation, and who never settle in the name of love. These ladies know what they want and take what they want by beating men at their own game. Utilizing the secrets exposed in this book, these women gain power, money, and status. Men call them gold diggers, women call them hos, but they call themselves winners. This is the book that society doesn't want you to listen to….
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I spent $24,000 in 4 months
- By B.M. on 10-06-18
By: G. L. Lambert
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The Autobiography of Malcolm X
- As Told to Alex Haley
- By: Malcolm X, Alex Haley
- Narrated by: Laurence Fishburne
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Experience a bold take on this classic autobiography as it’s performed by Oscar-nominated Laurence Fishburne. In this searing classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and Black empowerment activist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Human Rights movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American dream and the inherent racism in a society that denies its non-White citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.
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it's Nearly perfect
- By Kerry on 09-16-20
By: Malcolm X, and others
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I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t)
- Telling the Truth about Perfectionism, Inadequacy, and Power
- By: Brené Brown
- Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on seven years of ground-breaking research and hundreds of interviews, I Thought It Was Just Me shines a long-overdue light on an important truth: Our imperfections are what connect us to each other and to our humanity. Our vulnerabilities are not weaknesses; they are powerful reminders to keep our hearts and minds open to the reality that we're all in this together.
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I'm sure its great if you are a mother ....
- By Leslie A Hill on 08-09-11
By: Brené Brown
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Mythology: Mega Collection
- Classic Stories from the Greek, Celtic, Norse, Japanese, Hindu, Chinese, Mesopotamian and Egyptian Mythology
- By: Scott Lewis
- Narrated by: Madison Niederhauser, Oliver Hunt
- Length: 31 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Do you know how many wives Zeus had? Or how the famous Trojan War was caused by one beautiful lady? Or how Thor got his hammer? Give your imagination a real treat. This Mega Mythology Collection of eight audiobooks is for you....
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An interesting set of introductions.
- By Kevin Potter on 05-30-19
By: Scott Lewis
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The Philosopher's Toolkit: How to Be the Most Rational Person in Any Room
- By: Patrick Grim, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Patrick Grim
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
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Taught by award-winning Professor Patrick Grim of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, The Philosopher’s Toolkit: How to Be the Most Rational Person in Any Room arms you against the perils of bad thinking and supplies you with an arsenal of strategies to help you be more creative, logical, inventive, realistic, and rational in all aspects of your daily life.
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This should NOT be an audio book
- By Brooks Emerson on 03-21-20
By: Patrick Grim, and others
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My Big TOE: Awakening
- Book One of a Trilogy Unifying Philosophy, Physics, and Metaphysics
- By: Thomas Campbell
- Narrated by: Thomas Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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My Big TOE: Awakening, written by a nuclear physicist in the language of contemporary culture, unifies science and philosophy, physics and metaphysics, mind and matter, purpose and meaning, the normal and the paranormal. The entirety of human experience (mind, body, and spirit) including both our objective and subjective worlds is brought together under one seamless scientific understanding.
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What a Trip (but to where?)
- By Michael on 11-26-13
By: Thomas Campbell
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What listeners say about How Far to the Promised Land
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- HoboBill
- 02-04-24
A real, honest, painful, joyful, generous sharing of a black family’s stories
This book wove together the author’s family story in a way that reminded me that we all have these complex family lineages filled with possibility for redemption and hope right alongside the pain. It was an honest glimpse into the life of a black family in Alabama that I am grateful for him sharing—it has deepened my understanding of what black families in the US south have gone and are going through. And I’m so glad Esau McCaulley narrated his own book. It added so much realness and connection.
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- Jen
- 09-19-23
Making sense of complex family history
It's so easy for us to categorize people as all good or all bad. In Dr. McCaulley's search to make sense of his family members who seemed to be bad characters, he ends up discovering the stories of his family. His book shares with us his lament, his hope, and where he saw the presence of God.
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- Carin D.
- 04-15-24
Beautifully written
A beautifully written story. I couldn’t stop listening…finished it in one day. I am deeply touched by Esau’s story and even more so by his telling of it. I can’t really do it justice…it is a must read.
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- James Carmichael
- 09-23-23
An excellent story of Redemption
Esau has woven a captivating story of God at work in the life of a family. Heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. He speaks about race in a way that we can all see ourselves in the story and points us all towards something transcendent.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Sunny / Marvin Turner
- 10-08-23
Beautiful story
Beautiful story of God’s redemptive work in the lives of one family. May we all look at our loved ones with the grace God extends us.
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- alan w martin
- 10-17-23
Awesome story
Loved this book. 2nd book I’ve read by this author. He is a great communicator!
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- Paul Coy
- 09-19-23
Eye opening with enjoyment and self reflection
I appreciate hearing this story. It helped me to process and bring light to my own upbringing. Appreciate the understanding offered through this book.
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- Henry Williams
- 09-23-23
I loved this book!
I’ve been deeply impacted by Esau’s interviews on podcasts and the few New York Times columns that I’ve been able to read of his over the last couple of years. This book is so deeply moving. I shed lots of tears. I can’t wait to share it with others.
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- Jennifer Brown Jones
- 09-27-23
Powerful & Authentic
With grace and authenticity Esau McCaulley shares his story and that of the family that shaped him, offering a glimpse into a world that some of us have never known and will never know. With riveting prose, he invites his audience to a deeper understanding of what it means to be Black in America. With deep wisdom born of hurt, struggle, and love, Dr. McCaulley reminds his audience that people are complex, each with our own stories, and that none of us are beyond the reach of the God of the Exodus.
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- Travis B
- 08-18-24
well done
This is a well written story about growing up Black in the south. Esau does an amazing job to help his readers empathize with individuals that having no transgression other than being born Black. He does a great job to describe the systems that one must overcome in order to exist. I am thankful for the way he narrates his own story. Esau is an amazing story teller and theologian.
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