Night Wherever We Go

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on Waterstones
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 27 Apr 2023 | Archive Date 18 May 2023

Talking about this book? Use #NightWhereverWeGo #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

Shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize 2023

‘A hugely impressive debut’ SARAH WATERS

‘[A] haunting and moving story’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘A powerful and inspired achievement. This one is not to be missed’ NATHAN HARRIS

’A haunting, powerful and utterly unforgettable read’ RACHEL HENG

An intimate look at the domestic lives of enslaved women, NIGHT WHEREVER WE GO is an evocative meditation on resistance and autonomy, on love and transcendence and the bonds of female friendship in the darkest of circumstances.

On a struggling Texas plantation, six enslaved women slip from their sleeping quarters and gather in the woods under the cover of night. The Lucys—as they call the plantation owners, after Lucifer himself—have decided to turn around the farm’s bleak financial prospects by making the women bear children. They have hired a “stockman” to impregnate them. But the women are determined to protect themselves.

Now, each of the six faces a choice. Nan, the doctoring woman, has brought a sack of cotton root clippings that can stave off children when chewed daily. If they all take part, the Lucys may give up and send the stockman away. But a pregnancy for any of them will only encourage the Lucys further. And should their plan be discovered, the consequences will be severe.

Visceral and illuminating, Night Wherever We Go marks the arrival of a bold, lyrical and powerful new voice in fiction.

Shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize 2023

‘A hugely impressive debut’ SARAH WATERS

‘[A] haunting...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780008532840
PRICE £16.99 (GBP)

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Shelf App (PDF)
Send to Kindle (PDF)
Download (PDF)

Average rating from 49 members


Featured Reviews

A stunning, powerful, poignant novel that gives an intimate look into the everyday horror of enslaved women in Texas. Moving and beautifully written, this is an incredibly accomplished debut. A must read.

Was this review helpful?

Excellent and thought-provoking.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book.

Was this review helpful?

An absolutely beautiful book, raw and moving. We follow the lives of six slave women in Texas in the 1850s, as they struggle to maintain a sliver of hope and humanity in an utterly inhumane world. The story delves into their relationships with each other, their owners, and other slaves they meet, with a narrative voice both intimate and impersonal. A haunting tale, this will stick with readers long after they've finished it. I highly recommend it.

Was this review helpful?

'Night Wherever We Go' is as dark as it is illuminating. Slavery is never an easy topic to discuss. This story conveys the absolute bewilderment slaves must have felt being plucked from their homeland so far away, and dropped into a new land, new culture, and new rules; variables that continually moved according to the whims of their owners and the constant exchange of ownership. 'And what she understood most about all these white men with guns in this strange and new country was how arbitrary and varied their cruelty could be.' Slaves were treated as one cohesive group of Black Africans but in reality, each came from a different country and had different languages, religions, and cultures. However, they were expected to all get along and form a ragtag community of sorts, 'an exhaustive state of seething. Made only worse by the fact we were stuck together...'.

The book follows six enslaved women, living on a farm in Texas, in the years leading up to the Civil War. They are owned by the Harlows, 'kin of the devil in the most wretched place most of us have known'. The Harlows are poor farmers, often moving to escape debt, only to fail in another location. An uncle wisely tells Charles Harlow to, 'invest in women. They are cheaper than men and more versatile...And best of all, they can breed'. The Harlow's desperation sinks to a new level of depravity; bringing in a 'stockman' to breed more workers, like cattle in a yard. 'You ever seen them put a bull to a heifer? They put them together over and over again.' The women try and work together to claim control over their bodies. Each of them though has their own history to battle against.

The story begins with third-person narration but increasingly zeroes in on the first-person storytelling of each character. As time goes on, everyone is ruled by fear and mistrust. The white slave owners rule by fear, but also live in fear; locking up their slaves at night, before locking themselves in too. 'Evil was always hungry...' Everything begins to spiral toward a climax.

Tracey Rose Peyton delivers, in 300 pages a dense, gripping story. For the women in the story, it really is 'Night Wherever We Go'. For me, this was a great work of literary and historical fiction.

Was this review helpful?

This is an INCREDIBLE read and nothing that I can say will really do this book justice. It is a thought provoking, poignant and raw read that is well written and has a riveting storyline. It is an incredibly moving and brought me to tears more than once. I loved it,

Was this review helpful?

Night Wherever We Go by Tracey Rose Peyton is set in Texas on a plantation farm and provides an intimate glance into the lives of 6 enslaved women. Their owners (the Lucy’s which they call them after lucifer) are in financial trouble and decide the best way to make money is to make their slaves bear children against their wishes. To do this they hire a stockman. However the women do everything in their power to avoid getting pregnant.

The book is raw, touching and extremely eye opening to the everyday horrors that slave women had to experience at the hands of white Americans as well as what they had to do to survive those circumstances. What I found moving was the development of female friendship in such dark circumstances. I really liked the short chapters and the switches in narrator per chapter.

Thank you Netgalley and Tracey Rose Peyton for this ARC in response for my honest review!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5103241745

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck2z1F4L573/

Was this review helpful?

A gripping, searingly emotional novel that offers an original insight of the hardships endured by a small community of enslaved women. Set in Texas on a small struggling cotton farm we learn of the daily routines f both the owners " The Lucys" and the women that made these these farms worked. From organised reproduction (rape) by a travelling enslaved man to increase the workforce, to enforced wet nursing to owners friends, we the reader understand more of the minutiae that characterised this debasing period. We admire the small protests and the cohesion amongst these women. Such a well written engaging piece of work.

Was this review helpful?

Readers who liked this book also liked: