The Message
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The Message
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Narrated by:
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Ta-Nehisi Coates
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By:
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Ta-Nehisi Coates
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
With his bestseller, Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates established himself as a unique voice in his generation of American authors; a brilliant writer and thinker in the tradition of James Baldwin.
In his keenly anticipated new book, The Message, he explores the urgent question of how our stories – our reporting, imaginative narratives and mythmaking – both expose and distort our realities. Travelling to three resonant sites of conflict, he illuminates how the stories we tell – as well as the ones we don’t – work to shape us.
The first of the book’s three main parts finds Coates on his inaugural trip to Africa – a journey to Dakar, where he finds himself in two places at once: a modern city in Senegal and the ghost-haunted country of his imagination. He then takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he reports on the banning of his own work and the deep roots of a false and fiercely protected American mythology – visibly on display in this capital of the confederacy, with statues of segregationists still looming over its public squares. Finally in Palestine, Coates sees with devastating clarity the tragedy that grows in the clash between the stories we tell and reality on the ground.
Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive myths that shape our world – and our own souls – and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.
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What listeners say about The Message
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Ophelia Bellio
- 26-03-25
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Vital, urgent, and unflinching.
Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Message cuts through America’s culture wars with precise, confronting book bans, historical erasure, and the toxic fear of critical thought. Coates’ razor-sharp prose exposes how white fragility fuels censorship, weaponizing discomfort to silence truths about racism and systemic oppression. This book is armor against revisionism—equipping readers to challenge sanitized narratives and defend the power of honest history.
Coates masterfully ties personal experience to societal patterns, revealing why stories of slavery, redlining, and inequality are labeled “dangerous’. In an era where schools ban discussions of injustice, The Message is a rallying cry: refusing to let fear distort reality.
Concise yet profound, it’s essential for educators, parents, and anyone fighting for a more just future. Read it. Share it. Act.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- cooleya
- 19-11-24
Provocative, poetical, political
The Message is a captivating story on stories themselves, and the power of words and writers. Part autobiographical, partly a travelogue, Ta-Nehisi embarks on two journeys, perhaps both pilgrameges, and presents a striking summary of the enduring, ongoing reality of oppression, from the distant past to the present day. The author's reckoning of this brutal reality, and their own potential blindness to it, is profound and deeply honest (compounded by the precise, emotive narration by the author).
The prose is poetic, with countless beautiful summations of very ugly realities. I am not a writer, really, but this felt so important; a rallying cry for action.
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- Yvette
- 04-12-24
A deeply personal read, well worth the listen
What stands out for me is the heartfelt conversive nature of the text, beautifully delivered by the author himself. Full of bold reflection and an honesty that feels at times like a letter to those who might revolutionise our collective future and the stories we tell ourselves about the times.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 14-02-25
everything
this has been one of the (if not THE) most thought provoking books I have ever listened to. I'm hopeful and equally depressed after this. we need more voices like Ta-Nehisi Coates
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- Mark M.
- 15-03-25
Finally some attention
I liked every chapter of this book great insight into what should be important issues to us all. His visit to Palestine was particularly
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- Anonymous User
- 09-12-24
Profound!
I cannot put into words how this book is great, it is and should be required listening for all committed to the cause of justice and love!
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- Sara
- 06-01-25
He does it again
Breezed through this beautiful narration of Ta Nehisi’s journey and discoveries, providing a comparison of imperial colonial and racist projects to the ongoing injustice in Palestine.
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- Leucutia Paul Codrut
- 17-03-25
Realization
The realuzation of the true nature of israel and the compatison with Jim Crow american south era. That kind of racist behavior stil continues with american tax payer money and it is done in the name of jewis security while sacrificing themselfs for a piece of land that it is stolen.
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- Sari
- 18-02-25
We are not free, unless we are all free
Beautifully and sensitively written piece about the importance of storytelling, our human need for place and what connects us all. It feels the stars aligned that this book was published when it did. Wonderful to hear the author’s voice. Thank you
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- hippomom
- 12-12-24
Stunning truth telling
I absolutely loved this. A beautiful insight into history and what many are too fearful of.
Free Palestine, free us all from lies & disceipt & free oppressed people. Colonialism must end.
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1 person found this helpful