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The Devil Three Times
A Novel
Description
“A debut of enormous ambition” spanning eight generations of a Black family in West Tennessee as they are repeatedly visited by the Devil (Nathan Harris, New York Times bestselling author of The Sweetness of Water)
Yetunde awakens aboard a slave ship en route to the United States with the spirit of her dead sister as her only companion. Desperate to survive the hell that awaits her at their destination, Yetunde finds help in an unexpected form—the Devil himself. The Devil, seeking a way to reenter the pearly gates of heaven, decides to prove himself to an indifferent God by protecting Yetunde and granting her a piece of his supernatural power. In return, Yetunde makes an incredible sacrifice.
Their bargain extends far beyond Yetunde’s mortal lifespan. Over the next 175 years, the Devil visits Yetunde’s descendants in their darkest hour of need: Lucille, a conjure woman; Asa, who passes for white; Louis and Virgil, who risk becoming a twentieth-century Cain and Abel; Cassandra, who speaks to the dead; James, who struggles to make sense of the past while fighting to keep his family together; and many others. The Devil offers each of them his own version of salvation, all the while wondering: can he save himself, too?
Steeped in the spiritual traditions and oral history of the Black diaspora, The Devil Three Times is a baptism by fire and water, heralding a new voice in American fiction.
Yetunde awakens aboard a slave ship en route to the United States with the spirit of her dead sister as her only companion. Desperate to survive the hell that awaits her at their destination, Yetunde finds help in an unexpected form—the Devil himself. The Devil, seeking a way to reenter the pearly gates of heaven, decides to prove himself to an indifferent God by protecting Yetunde and granting her a piece of his supernatural power. In return, Yetunde makes an incredible sacrifice.
Their bargain extends far beyond Yetunde’s mortal lifespan. Over the next 175 years, the Devil visits Yetunde’s descendants in their darkest hour of need: Lucille, a conjure woman; Asa, who passes for white; Louis and Virgil, who risk becoming a twentieth-century Cain and Abel; Cassandra, who speaks to the dead; James, who struggles to make sense of the past while fighting to keep his family together; and many others. The Devil offers each of them his own version of salvation, all the while wondering: can he save himself, too?
Steeped in the spiritual traditions and oral history of the Black diaspora, The Devil Three Times is a baptism by fire and water, heralding a new voice in American fiction.
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Praise
“A major new talent announces himself with The Devil Three Times. Rickey Fayne has written a structurally inventive novel that challenges nearly everything we've been taught about God and the Devil and the usefulness of Jesus’s love for Black folks. This book is daring, and it challenged me at every turn. I was also deeply moved by its soulful belief in a universe in which we are all connected across generations.”
—Attica Locke, New York Times bestselling author of Guide Me Home and Bluebird, Bluebird
“A debut of enormous ambition that succeeds on every level. This is a page-turning, rollicking novel that is both an intimate family saga and an elegy for the American experience. Not since James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain has a debut conveyed Black spirituality with such passion, style, and brio. From the first page, I was spellbound, and was left devastated by the novel’s end. This is what literature is all about.”
—Nathan Harris, New York Times bestselling author of The Sweetness of Water
“Rickey Fayne's extraordinary The Devil Three Times is a book that understands both the sweep of history and its indelible characters' most intimate thoughts. Polyphonic, complex, heartbreaking, beautiful, enveloping, full of the devil and full of grace, this brilliant book is like nothing you've ever read. It reads like music, lore, history, and life itself.”
—Elizabeth McCracken, bestselling author of The Hero of this Book and Bowlaway
“If Milton taught us something sexy about the Devil, this deliciously sacrilegious and profane debut by Rickey Fayne thrusts the dark and needy anti-hero through the sloppy heart of American nation building. In The Devil Three Times, the Laurent family and their black winged guardian—their triumphs or subjections, from the plantation system to the heavenly plane—will sing their way into the consciousness of any reader ready to listen. Fayne’s voice triumphs at the nexus of intimacy and violence, reminding us never to look away from what we all, under some banner of fear or righteousness, once dared to want.”
—Joseph Earl Thomas, author of God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer and Sink
“A brilliant gospel chorus of resilience and humanity. We cover generations with storytelling that is equally smart, sexy, propulsive, and inventive. It’s a scary novel that holds armfuls of beauty. Whole pages will stick with you, as they’ve stuck with me. Rickey Fayne’s talent is a joy to behold.”
—Gabriel Bump, author Everywhere You Don’t Belong and The New Naturals
"The Devil Three Times is a tour-de-force—of history, imagination, and heart. Rickey Fayne is an astonishing writer, and he’s arrived with an enthralling saga that is as poignant as it is powerful.”
—Bret Anthony Johnston, author of We Burn Daylight
“With a voice and rhythm that zips and twangs like our best-loved Black folk tales, this epic family saga unfurls with tender precision, illuminating the dark and light of our very human natures to profound effect. With this novel, at times biting or funny but always hinting at something real, Fayne has created a lasting work, a story that haunts.”
—Dantiel W. Moniz, author of Milk Blood Heat
“In The Devil Three Times, Rickey Fayne makes deep folklore and African American oral tradition feel alive, and thrilling. In a voice that is as humorous as it is wise, Fayne paints an unforgettable portrait of one family’s journey through the peculiar landscape that is America.”
—Angela Flournoy, author of The Wilderness