Dominion

A Novel

By: Addie E. Citchens

Narrated by: Andre Giles, Angel Pean, Bahni Turpin, Dion Graham

"This novel will grab you in the gut and hold you there. It’s absolutely outstanding. Once I entered this world I didn’t want to leave.” —Roxane Gay, author of Opinions

"The cast delivers powerfully nuanced performances. [Narrator] Dion Graham’s Sabre is both cringe-inducingly unctuous and disturbingly seductive. [Narrator] Bahni Turpin’s Priscilla is piercing, hilarious and sympathetic in her human emotion...[Narrator] Angel Pean’s performance is as multifaceted and resilient as her character’s name..."—BookPage

In this taut Southern family drama featuring multicast narration, the sins of a favorite son rock a small Mississippi town.

Reverend Sabre Winfrey, Jr., shepherd of the Seven Seals Missionary Baptist Church, believes in God, his own privilege, and enterprise. He owns the barbershop and the radio station, and generally keeps an iron hand on every aspect of society in Dominion, Mississippi. He and his wife, Priscilla, have five boys; the youngest, Emanuel, is called Wonderboy—no one sings prettier, runs as fast, or turns as many heads. But Wonderboy, his father, and all the structures in place that keep them on top are not as righteous as they seem to be. And when Wonderboy is caught off guard by an encounter with a stranger, he finds himself confronted by questions he’d never imagined. His response sends shock waves through the entire community.

Priscilla and Diamond, two women who love these men, bear witness to their charms and bear the brunt of their choices. Through their eyes and their stories, Dominion offers an intricate, intimate view of how secrets control us, how shame stifles us, how silence implicates us, and how even love plays a role in the everyday violence and casual sins of the powerful.

A brilliantly crafted Black Southern family drama told with the captivating force, humor, and tenderness carried in the hearts of these women, Addie E. Citchens’s Dominion wrestles with the many brutal, sinister ways in which we are shaped by fear and patriarchy, and studies how we might yet choose to break free.

"Narrator Bahni Turpin delivers his mother's biting commentary with hilarious sarcasm...Diamond, portrayed by [narrator] Angel Pean in a silky, sensual narration, is filled with love for the unreachable boy...[Narrator] Andre Giles's third-person interludes offer haunting glimpses of Emanuel's life of power and perversion."—AudioFile

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

What a ride!

Church drama, teenage love, and a whole heap of bad decisions make for a good time. I’ve never loved to hate so many characters at once as I did with this book. The narrators were also impeccable. GET IT!!

Exquisite storytelling

I finished it, and then I restarted it and ran it back again.

I’ve never done that before but I was so invested in the story, I had to listen once more to make sure I hadn’t missed a nuance or a fact.
The male voices were authentically’ country’ and at times hard to understand, Since they contained vital parts of the experience I found myself digging deep.

I loved this book. Plots and realities elegantly understated yet familiar, right up to the “ did I see that coming? “ end.

It was fine

It was fine- the younger male narrator was difficult to understand. I didn’t love it the story but the message is still there and I appreciated that.

Fun read.

I really enjoyed this one! I found myself laughing out loud, especially whenever the First Lady was involved. The ending, though, was disappointing for me. While a lot of people loved it, I felt it was rushed and underdeveloped, leaving me with too many unanswered questions. The characters had been so thorough throughout the story, but at the end they suddenly became vague and tight-lipped. I wish the author had spent more time connecting the dots.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, and the narration was great, except for the country guy, who was a bit hard to understand.

Excellent storytelling

Loved this book and the complexity of each character, I’d like to sit down with the author and pick her brain. I couldn’t put it down.