* AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * 'A spectacular achievement' ANTHONY DOERR 'Extravagantly beautiful' DAILY MAIL 'One of the greatest writers of all time' JACQUELINE WOODSON 'Extraordinary' GUARDIAN 'The best book I've read in years' LOUISE KENNEDY ----------------------- The first weapon I ever held was my mother's hand. On a slave plantation in the Carolinas, Annis has survived in the light of her mother's resilience, comforted by stories of her African warrior grandmother. Everything she knows, she learned from her mother – how to fight, how to be strong, how to grow up in a world shrouded in darkness. When she is sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, Annis must venture onward through the rich but unforgiving landscapes of the American South alone: from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans, and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation. Searching for relief in memories of her mother, she opens herself to a world beyond her own, teeming with spirits of earth, water, history and myth. A reimagining of American slavery as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching, Let Us Descend offers a magnificent portrait of the strength of the human spirit and its ability to emerge from darkness into light. This is a story of beauty, love, rebirth and reclamation – a masterwork for the ages. Praise for Sing, Unburied, Sing 'A must' Margaret Atwood 'One of the most important writers in America today' Ann Patchett 'Ward is a lyrical, visceral storyteller' Daily Mail 'A searing, urgent read' Celeste Ng 'Plays out like a grand epic ... Staggering' Marlon James

Advanced beings from somewhere in our galaxy descending on mountaintops, appeared to men in burning bushes. Angels, known as cherubim with four wings and wheels, flew with the sound of thunder. Beings, who ate, drank, and communicated with ancient biblical people, were Earth's first contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. We, the humans of today, refer to these beings as the God of the Bible. In this book, L. Sheldon Oldford compares the knowledge we have of science and technology to the characteristics of the biblical God as the unseen, ever-present, and all-knowing deity only to find that this being is more like a flesh-and-blood ancient astronaut. This astronaut arrived on Earth thousands of years ago and made contact with biblical figures, such as Adam, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Ezekiel, Elijah, and Elisha, which brought about the establishment of moral and religious laws that set humanity on a course of needing a savior. Could it be that Jesus Christ was an actual descendant of a flesh-and-blood father named Yahweh, a real-life ancient astronaut? Can a Christian believe in evolution and still be a Christian? Could it be that the ancient alien theory is closer to the truth than any of Earth's religions? Are we truly the product of an extraterrestrial race of giants, created in the image and likeness of them?