Home-Going

Rediscover the life-giving connections between us,which neither death nor racism can destroy.
In a captivating blend of Black history, African spirituality, and personal memory, Home-Going displaces hopeless accounts of racism and death with a story of limitless love. Saint-Jean invites us to participate in the pain and trauma as well as the creative resilience of the Black experience. He inspires us with courage and possibility.
- Valarie Kaur, author of See No Stranger and Founder of the Revolutionary Love Project
In this compelling book by Patrick Saint-Jean, we see how much we have to learn from the Black community about death and grief. It should be a must-read for bereavement counselors, and everyone will benefit from its explanation of how life and community are inseparable. Bereavement is a health disparity because the mortality rate is higher in Black and Indigenous communities; what we have yet to realize is that these communities can also teach us about how to understand grief. What a fantastic book!
- Mary-Frances O'Connor, PhD, author of The Grieving Brain
Arresting, illuminating, and categorically exquisite, Home-Going is a gem and balm. Through personal storytelling and analysis, weaving the spiritual and intellectual, historical and contemporary, Saint-Jean's book is an eloquent meditation on life, death, and community. Directing us from social sin and the epidemic of racism, denial, and brokenness to healing, informed by African worldviews and Christianity, it is a deeply layered, timely edifice-supremely discerning, innovative, and necessary-that charts a geography of hope and renewal.
- Trimiko Melancon, Professor of African American and African Studies, Michigan State University
Patrick Saint-Jean provides a highly personal narrative of his journey toward justice, as he also encourages us to take a similar journey. He reminds us that while we start from different places, we must together embark toward stronger community.
- Chris Elias, MD, MPH, President, Global Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation