The Great Wherever - by Shannon Sanders (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From an award-winning writer, a debut novel that's a fresh and dazzling portrait of a family and its history in the American South, from Reconstruction through the present day

At thirty-two, Aubrey Lamb is stumbling into adulthood. A semi-employed gig worker in Washington, DC, she's grieving the recent loss of her father and the end of a relationship that she'd thought would lead to marriage. When Aubrey learns that she has inherited a shared stake in a sizable Tennessee farm from her father, she simply sees an opportunity to get out of the city--and the potential to erase a mounting pile of debts.

Upon her arrival in Lanyer County, though, Aubrey meets the relatives with whom she shares ownership of the farm, and discovers the backstory of the land, beginning with her great-grandfather Thomas--one of the first Black landowners in his community, who gave his four children a homestead on which they could flourish.

But the land proves to be a burdensome inheritance. Over the years, it divides the family, turning Thomas' descendants against each other and drawing the attention of external forces only too eager to wrest the land from Black hands. These struggles come to a head when a catastrophic tragedy befalls the Lambs, splintering the family and echoing down through the decades, with repercussions for Audrey herself.

As Aubrey learns this history from her living relatives, the ghosts of her ancestors interject with their own exasperated, gossipy commentary on the flaws and foibles of relatives living and dead, and stake their own claims on the farm.

Injecting the expansive family sagas of Honorée Fanonne Jeffers and Margaret Wilkerson Sexton with a very modern voice, The Great Wherever is at once grand and intimate; it explores the ways we learn to define ourselves through and against our family, how we carry on after loss, and how the past lives on in all of us.

Review Quotes

Praise for Company:

"A deftly woven tapestry that scrupulously depicts familial ties and estrangement, richly told with a nuance that allows each character dignity and grace."
―Jonathan Escoffery, The New York Times Book Review

"[Company] captures Black familial relations beyond the frame. . . . Sanders extracts comedy from the formidable situations that erupt in people's lives―divorce, financial struggle, aging, death and childlessness. Whether chosen or biological, who we consider family can shape how we cope with drama."
―The Washington Post

"Sanders' writing is what we need right now: stories of Black Americans living and questioning and existing as families in this complicated world. She doesn't focus on Black trauma...Instead, she writes about regular people living their regular, messy lives; her characters are both funny and relatable."
―Washington City Paper

"Company is a rich and distinct collection that announces Shannon Sanders as an exciting new voice in contemporary literature."
―BOMB

"[A] rare feat. . . . Sanders weaves the narrative fabric of her stories with the utmost care, creating an intricate and lively look into the many beautiful moments in the lives of one Black family."
―Chicago Review of Books' "Must-Read Books of October 2023"

"Sanders's flair for home life links her work to a tradition of 'domestic fiction, ' a line traced from Alice Munro and Marilynne Robinson back to Flannery O'Connor and Zora Neale Hurston, whose narrative pace Company frequently evokes. In the work of these women writers, Sanders may have confirmed her own taste for the Southern surreal."
―The Adroit Journal

"Sanders excels in this masterly debut collection about a Black extended family . . . describing their slights, heartaches, and misbehavior with exquisite emotional acuity. This is a winner."
―Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Remarkable. . . . The characters throughout are expertly rendered and deeply relatable. . . . Sanders' stories are unforgettable, making this a strong and promising debut."
―Booklist, starred review

"Subtly crafted. . . . The difficult aspects of negotiating family relationships are gently examined but, more interestingly, respected in their recounting. The complicated circuitry behind family alliances and breakdowns is artfully revealed."
―Kirkus Reviews

"Sanders writes with such courage and complexity. She has a masterful grasp of characters, pacing, and plotting. Company is a delectable debut."
―Debutiful's "Most Anticipated Debuts of 2023"

"Secrets are kept, traumas heal and endure. A rich, multigenerational portrait of a Black family."
―Electric Literature, "Must-Read Debut Short Story Collections of 2023"

"Shannon Sanders's stories simply blew me away. The Collins family and the many folks in their orbit are endlessly fascinating, frustrating, and fun to meet on the page. Company is a riotous, dazzling debut that is as profound as it is entertaining."
―Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

"A brilliant debut with each incisive chapter offering a new window into the beguiling Collins family. This delighted me."
―Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful

"Company is a story collection that eats like a novel. Each story feels like a completely different vision of the same majestically sprawling family, as these neurotic high achievers struggle to balance the duties of kinship, social appearances, and honesty to their true selves. Reading Shannon Sanders makes me want to visit home."
―Tony Tulathimutte, author of Rejection and Private Citizens

"Company introduces an unforgettable cast of characters who remind us that family can be both wound and salve. Sanders offers sharp and original insight into the intimate politics of race and class and the impossible rules we've inherited to navigate them. This is a brilliant and immaculate debut."
―Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections

About the Author

Shannon Sanders is the author of the linked short story collection Company, which won the 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes' Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, was named a Publishers Weekly and Debutiful Best Book of 2023, and was shortlisted for the 2024 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous publication s, including One Story, Sewanee Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Electric Literature, and received a PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband and three sons.