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The Yellow Wife

A Novel

by Sadeqa Johnson

Narrator Robin Miles

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Length 9 hours 31 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“The Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johonson was a great audio book! It took me through a journey of emotions, happy, sad, anger, fear... but ultimately it left me with a strong curiosity and desire to research the factual events that inspired her writing this historical fiction story! If you're looking to start the year off with a good read, this audio book is for you!”
— Crystal • We Are LIT

Bookseller recommendation

“The Yellow Wife was a fantastically written historical fiction novel. We follow Pheby Dolores Brown, a young woman who grew up on a plantation the daughter of the healer woman and the master. I love that Johnson's inspiration for the book came from a real woman, Mary Lumpkin. Lumpkin was a light skinned Black woman married to a prolific white slave trader. The two raised their family on "the Devil's Half Acre" just three blocks from the capitol building in Richmond, VA. After encountering the site with her children, Johnson began to imagine what Mary's life was like among so much death and carnage, especially being a Black woman herself. Johnson weaves a fantastic tale that pulls at heartstrings and has you questioning white history and race. Beautifully narrated by the indomitable Robin Miles, this was a highly engrossing listen that I highly recommend to historical fiction fans.”
— Kimi • Buttonwood Books and Toys

Summary
About the author

From the New York Times bestselling author of House of Eve—a 2023 Reese’s Book Club Pick!

*A Best Book of the Year by NPR and Christian Science Monitor*

Called “wholly engrossing” by New York Times bestselling author Kathleen Grissom, this “fully immersive” (Lisa Wingate, #1 bestselling author of Before We Were Yours) story follows an enslaved woman forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Virginia.

Born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia, Pheby Delores Brown has lived a relatively sheltered life. Shielded by her mother’s position as the estate’s medicine woman and cherished by the Master’s sister, she is set apart from the others on the plantation, belonging to neither world.

She’d been promised freedom on her eighteenth birthday, but instead of the idyllic life she imagined with her true love, Essex Henry, Pheby is forced to leave the only home she has ever known. She unexpectedly finds herself thrust into the bowels of slavery at the infamous Devil’s Half Acre, a jail in Richmond, Virginia, where the enslaved are broken, tortured, and sold every day. There, Pheby is exposed not just to her Jailer’s cruelty but also to his contradictions. To survive, Pheby will have to outwit him, and she soon faces the ultimate sacrifice.

Fiction Historical Fiction

Sadeqa Johnson is the New York Times bestselling author of five novels. Her accolades include being the 2022 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy finalist, a BCALA Literary Honoree, and the Library of Virginia’s Literary People’s Choice Award winner. She is a Kimbilio Fellow and teaches in the MFA program at Drexel University. Originally from Philadelphia, she currently lives near Richmond, Virginia with her husband and three teens.