Solomon delves into Yetu’s characterization through her exploration of identity and self while also discussing the devastations of slavery through fiction. It is the job of the Historian, to carry the community’s memories along with the echoes of emotional trauma from such events. The novel follows the story of Yetu, a member of the Wanjuri who has chosen to carry the burden of being a Historian. The Wanjuri swim along the sea in ignorant bliss without carrying the weight of memories of the suffering of their past ancestors. The mermaid-like clan has no long-term memory, instead choosing to live in the moment without the burden of the past. The novel focuses on the story of the water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African women who were thrown overboard from slave ships: the Wanjiru. Illustration design by Micah Epstein (2019) Inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping for the This American Life episode “We Are In The Future,” The Deep is vividly original and uniquely affecting.“The Deep” by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes is captivating and thought-provoking, in the story readers are introduced to an underwater world plagued with horrific historical events intertwined with mysticism. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity-and own who they really are.

Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past-and about the future of her people. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities-and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.

Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one-the historian. ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF 2019 The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society-and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award–nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’s rap group clipping Yetu holds the memories for her people-water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners-who live idyllic lives in the deep.

The deep by solomon rivers