"In this extraordinary book, Alexis Okeowo examines Alabama as only someone who grew up there could, with care, with criticism, with hope. Here, our much maligned state, the butt of the joke, the example of what not to do, looks much more like what I knew it to be growing up—complex, yes, but also, simply, just like every other state in a union that continues to grapple with its sordid past."—Yaa Gyasi, author of Homegoing and Transcendent Kingdom

"I have never wished that a writer was from Mississippi as much as Blessings and Disasters made me wish Alexis Okeowo and I shared a home state. Instead, Alabama, you got one! The majestic ruptures Okeowo finds in Alabama will be written about for decades. Okeowo is showing out in this layered offering, and we are so lucky for it."—Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir

"Outsiders like to define Alabama through oppositions—reality vs. myth, dire poverty vs. reckless wealth, violence vs. natural beauty, and Blacks vs. whites. Alexis Okeowo turns these oppositions into gripping complications, tracking the collective histories and individual lives of Creek Indians, Latinos, whites, African Americans, and West Africans, and combining a reporter’s acuity with a storyteller’s empathy."—Margo Jefferson, author of Negroland and Constructing a Nervous System