The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghost...

Finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award“Mothers never die. Children love to resurrect us in they stories.”Folktales and spirits animate this lively and unforgettable coming-of-age tale of two Jamaican-Trinidadian sisters in Brooklyn grappling with their mother’s illness, their father's infidelity, and the truth of their family's pastSisters Zora and Sasha Porter are drifting apart. Bearing witness to their father’s violence and their mother’s worsening illness, an unsettled Zora escapes into her journal, dreaming of being a writer, while Sasha discovers sex and chest binding, spending more time with her new girlfriend than at home.But the sisters, like their parents, must come together to answer to something more ancient and powerful than they know—and reckon with a family secret buried in the past. A tale told from the perspective of a mischievous narrator, featuring the Rolling Calf who haunts butchers, Mama Dglo who lives in the ocean, a vain tiger, and an outsmarted snake, The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts is set in a world as alive and unpredictable as Helen Oyeyemi’s.Telling of the love between sisters who don’t always see eye to eye, this extraordinary debut novel is a celebration of the power of stories, asking, What happens to us when our stories are erased? Do we disappear? Or do we come back haunting?

that it’s not just the stories that evolve with each telling, but we ourselves who are rearranged too."

"What happens to stories that are born of another land? When they migrate multiple times and across multiple generations? Soraya Palmer’s ambitious and passionate debut, The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts, is a thoughtful exploration of these questions . . . This is a book written with the gods of storytelling in mind; it highlights what stories can do

Today

"One of the Best New Books to Read in 2023."

and a surrounding cache of remarkable tales

"The long and winding name of this assertive debut matches the magnitude of the stories within, which draw on folklore to capture the dynamic between two sisters, Zora and Sasha Porter. Their mother’s illness and their father’s violence has fractured their relationship, but their bond is reforged as an old family secret

Jordannah Elizabeth, Amsterdam News

"In Soraya Palmer’s The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts, the fantastical plot flowers more like a century-old fable than a standard work of fiction, made up of colorfully strange characters . . . One cannot help but experience curiosity about this tale of two sisters who begin to live very different lives as they grow older. If you’re interested in colorful African American folklore, this book is unlikely to disappoint."

Suzi Feay, The Financial Times (UK)

"In wild, firecracker prose, Palmer whirls the reader into a realm where the real and unreal are constantly changing places. It’s a stunning feat of storytelling in itself."

and the enduring power of West African folklore in the diaspora.”

“Like the West African folktales upon which the family relies, the novel highlights the power of story and myth to engage, teach, and soothe

Sarah Neilson, Shondaland

"[A] stunning debut novel . . . With magnetic prose and nuanced characters, Palmer has created a story where readers will be invested from page one."

Gianni Washington, Chicago Review of Books

"In homage to the folktales that began in Africa, and took on new shapes in the Caribbean, The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts resists the expectation to linger over motivation, abandoning literary fiction’s 'why' to spotlight Afro-Caribbean folklore’s 'what' . . . [the novel] vividly conveys a multitude of profound emotional experiences that exist as squares of fabric: some are already joined by the bold seam of cause and effect, while others exist separately but for the thread of inference. With this debut, the author invites us to view long-held traditions in storytelling anew, and to meditate on why they endure. Troubling subjects and compelling questions abound. Nevertheless, much like those who have recounted the lore of Anansi and the rolling calf through the ages, Palmer trusts the capacity of the narrative to bear the weight of all things said and unsaid."

John Domini, The Brooklyn Rail

"The natural predator to the ordinary is the extraordinary . . . and delivering the extraordinary emerges as the core triumph of The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts."

but also an immersive and sumptuous read. Palmer shines."

"Palmer imbues her novel with both snappy pacing and deep feeling in a lovely prose voice with music and poetry behind it. The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts has big things to say about sisterhood and family; race, sexuality and class; life and death; and above all, the power of storytelling . . . The result is wide-ranging and thought-provoking

Booklist

"Vivid and otherworldly, this masterfully told novel brings together many threads of family history, personal memory, collective choices, sexuality, and a realm of mysteries and mythic creatures with deep origins and powers . . . A striking and imaginative debut."

Kirkus Reviews

"Palmer is playful as a stylist without undermining her themes of family, identity, and belonging . . . [This] promising debut tells a family fable that rides on its well-developed protagonists."

Publishers Weekly

"Palmer weaves folktales and magical realism in her moving debut . . . This will stick with readers."

Mina Seçkin, author of The Four Humors

"At once mischievous and warm, Soraya Palmer’s voice will bewitch you from the very first page, leading you through the complexities of sisterhood and motherhood, belonging and loss. The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts illuminates the transformative power of storytelling itself, and reminds you that the most powerful and potent family stories are as cursed as they are nourishing."

Daphne Palasi Andreades, author of Brown Girls

"Playful and deft, Palmer’s debut novel spans the brownstones of Brooklyn to the shores of Jamaica and Trinidad, and Tobago. This is a tale that honors the complicated love between immigrant families, the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood, and, above all, the infinite power of storytelling: to haunt, heal, and conjure entire universes into existence."

at times haunting or healing, seductive or terrifying. Palmer's ever-rippling prose also shifts deftly

"Prismatic and dazzling, Palmer's debut entrances with its stories-within-stories structure and loving portrayal of two sisters coming into their own power while grappling with family secrets and tales untold. Anansi and other folkloric figures and deities of their Jamaican Trinidadian heritage weave throughout the novel, transforming from teller to teller, from one generation to the next

Gabriella Burnham, author of It is Wood, It is Stone

"Soraya Palmer’s epic, sweeping debut contains multitudes: it is tender, daring, funny, and exquisitely written. It is a love letter to sisterhood that believes in the power of stories to transform. This book certainly transformed me."

De'Shawn Charles Winslow, author of In the West Mills

"The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts is an all-consuming novel about sisterhood, motherhood, belonging, loss, and self-discovery. Soraya Palmer's characters are unparalleled and her prose is musical. Read this novel with a sibling, a cousin, or a very close friend."

Madeline ffitch, author of Stay and Fight

"The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts envisions family as always in motion, careening through history, connection, attachment, discovery and warmth, with all the pain, loss, and even violence that might include. Expertly paced, deeply imagined, by turns playful and heartbreaking, I love the way this novel understands that sometimes nothing will sustain us except the right story that is truer than true."

About the Author

SORAYA PALMER is a Flatbush-born-and-raised writer and licensed social worker who advocates for survivors of gender-based violence who are facing criminal charges related to their abuse. She has been awarded a residency at Blue Mountain Center and interviewed for her work against police brutality, gentrification, and violence in The New York Times and BuzzFeed News. She lives in New York.

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