Listen to a sample
The Barn
- Author
- Wright Thompson
- Narrator
- Wright Thompson
- Publisher
- Cornerstone
- Publish Date
- 26 September 2024
- Run Time
- 11 hours 38 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
Not available in your country
We don't have the rights to sell this audiobook where you are. If it's already in your library you can still listen to it in My Books.
What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
How forces from around the world converged on the Mississippi Delta to bring about the most consequential murder in US history.
Emmett Till’s murder is one of the most infamous in American history; a moment that, more than any other, awakened the world to the racism of the Deep South. Yet despite growing up just a few miles from where it happened, Wright Thompson knew nothing of it until he left Mississippi. This is no accident: the cover-up began at once, and it is ongoing.
Over the course of five years’ research, Thompson has learnt that almost every part of the standard account of Till’s killing is wrong. In August 1955, after the two men charged with the murder were acquitted by an all-white jury, they gave a false confession to a journalist: one that was misleading about where the murder took place and who was involved. We now know that at least eight people were present, and many more complicit. And we now know precisely where it took place: inside a barn on a 36-square-mile grid called Township 22 North, Range 4 West.
This book tells the story of that barn. It is the story of what really happened on the night of August 28, 1955, and of the individuals who have spent decades bringing the truth to light. And it is the story of the centuries-old forces that made that night inevitable: forces that, over the course of 200 years, transformed Township 22 North, Range 4 West from Choctaw land, to a slave plantation, to a sharecropper’s farm, to the site of the most significant murder in US history.
The result is a revelatory work of investigative reportage and a panoramic new history of white supremacy in America. It maps the road that the US – and the world – must travel to heal its oldest, deepest wound.
© Wright Thompson 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024
Critics Review
-
Haunting . . . The Barn is part investigative journalism, part catharsis. Thompson travels back and forth through space and time, describing a brutal murder on one page, riffing about the blues on another. The story meanders like the myriad tributaries of the Mississippi. The writing is often breathtaking, brutality amplified through perfectly crafted prose.
The Times
-
Extraordinary . . . Not only an intimate history of the tragedy, but also a deep meditation on Mississippi and America . . . While sifting through the dirt that buried the facts about Till’s death, Thompson credits the work of the historians, journalists and filmmakers who have sought to tell the true tale. But he crafts a wider, deeper narrative. The Barn is serious history and skillful journalism, but with the nuance and wallop of a finely wrought novel . . . Describes not just the poison of silence and lies, but also the dignity of courage and truth.
Washington Post
-
With a passion for truth and justice, and a fierce determination to dig for the secrets, Wright Thompson has produced an incredible history of a crime that changed America.
John Grisham
-
It literally changed my outlook on the world . . . incredible.
Shonda Rhimes
See more reviews See fewer reviews
-
Powerfully pieces together the true story of a horrific murder in the Mississippi Delta in 1955.
Independent
-
Powerful and unflinching . . . What’s unforgettable by the end of Thompson’s book is just how thoroughly this country was built on a belief that some people were worthless and expendable because of the color of their skin . . . Books like The Barn offer some hope that America can heal its oldest and deepest wound.
Associated Press
-
The most brutal, layered and absolutely beautiful book about Mississippi, and really how the world conspired with the best and worst parts of Mississippi, I will ever read . . . Every generation you get a few writers with the engine of a 747 and the skill of a wizard. We see it in Ward, Wright, Faulkner and Trethewey. And that finely crafted motor is on full display in this work by Wright Thompson. The Barn is the new standard in research and book-making.
Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir
-
In this important, diligently researched, and beautifully rendered story, Wright Thompson takes up one of the most consequential and tragic events of the twentieth century, the murder of Emmett Till, in the place where it happened. The land, the people, and circumstance are vivid on every page. With integrity, and soul, Thompson unearths the terrible how and why, carrying us back and forth through time, deep in Mississippi - baring, sweat, soil, and heart all the way through. Most of all, Thompson teaches us that history is the most important ghost story there is to tell, and that we - the haunted - must be healed.
Imani Perry, Professor in African and African American Studies, Harvard University
-
Terrifying and humbling, The Barn is a chilling examination of the American strain of a nasty human disorder: the slow immolation that some communities initiate when they choose enabling mythologies, deceit, silence, injustice, and willed ignorance as their moral orders.
Boston Globe
-
A gut-punch of a book . . . Foregoing the harrowing photos that emphasize Till’s martyrdom, Thompson dives instead into family trees, court transcripts, witness memoirs and more to unearth the enormous human tragedy we forget at our peril.
LA Times
User Reviews
No reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Wright Thompson
- Narrator
- Wright Thompson
- Duration
- 11 hours 38 minutes
- Release Date
- 26 September 2024
- ISBN
- 9781804953143
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Cornerstone
- Genre
- True stories of discovery, Racism and racial discrimination / Anti-racism, True crime: serial killers and murderers, History of the Americas, Slavery, enslaved persons and abolition of slavery
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin.How forces from around the world converged on the Mississippi Delta to bring about the most consequential murder in US history.Emmett Till’s murder is one of the most infamous in American history; a moment that, more than any other, awakened the world to the racism of the Deep South. Yet despite growing up just a few miles from where it happened, Wright Thompson knew nothing of it until he left Mississippi. This is no accident: the cover-up began at once, and it is ongoing.Over the course of five years’ research, Thompson has learnt that almost every part of the standard account of Till’s killing is wrong. In August 1955, after the two men charged with the murder were acquitted by an all-white jury, they gave a false confession to a journalist: one that was misleading about where the murder took place and who was involved. We now know that at least eight people were present, and many more complicit. And we now know precisely where it took place: inside a barn on a 36-square-mile grid called Township 22 North, Range 4 West.This book tells the story of that barn. It is the story of what really happened on the night of August 28, 1955, and of the individuals who have spent decades bringing the truth to light. And it is the story of the centuries-old forces that made that night inevitable: forces that, over the course of 200 years, transformed Township 22 North, Range 4 West from Choctaw land, to a slave plantation, to a sharecropper’s farm, to the site of the most significant murder in US history.The result is a revelatory work of investigative reportage and a panoramic new history of white supremacy in America. It maps the road that the US – and the world – must travel to heal its oldest, deepest wound.© Wright Thompson 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024
About xigxag
xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK's only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.
There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at $13.95. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from $7.95. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.
Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.
Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.