As I was reading this, I felt like I needed to get the word “respair” tattooed on my body. That’s how deeply this collection affected me. The essays all felt different from one another, yet connected through themes of grief, resilience, survival, and healing. What stayed with me most was how each essay gave me something different to sit with — some left me heartbroken, some reflective, and some unexpectedly hopeful.
On Witness and Respair by Jesmyn Ward, (List Price: $29, Scribner, 9781668064269, May 2026)
Reviewed by Jess, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC