Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama

From a New Yorker staff writer and PEN Award winner, a blend of memoir, history, and reportage on one of the most complex and least understood states in America.

"In Alabama, we exist at the border of blessing and disaster...."

Alexis Okeowo grew up in Montgomery, Alabama-the former seat of the Confederacy-as the daughter of Nigerian immigrants. Here, she weaves her family's story with her state's, from Alabama's forced removal of the Creek nation, making room for enslaved West Africans, to present-day legislative battles for "evolution disclaimers" in biology textbooks. She immerses us in the landscape, no longer one of cotton fields but rather one dominated by auto plants and Amazon warehouses.

Defying stereotypes at every turn, Okeowo shows how people can love their home while still acknowledging its sins.

In this emotional, perspective-shifting work that is both a memoir and a journalistic triumph, Okeowo investigates her life, other Alabamians' lives, and the state's lesser-known histories, to examine why Alabama has been the stage for the most extreme results of the American experiment.