... a mesmerizing reminder that this divide between Black and white is a false binary.

The text is timely, as people are increasingly looking to learn about race and the Black experience in the United States through books, amid calls for conversations on justice and equity sparked in part by protests about systemic racism.

... sensitive, insightful.

Recommend to readers seeking spiritually-informed black narratives or oral histories and fans of Jerkins’s first book; less useful for readers seeking factual histories of the Great Migration..

Jerkins writes with vulnerability and ease, and readers will root for her discoveries. Her curiosity is both admirable and exciting as we witness the intersectionality of her maternal and paternal makeup. There is an underlying spiritual tone to this memoir; she even feels spiritually guided by her ancestors during her travels and research. She helps ground the experience of disenfranchised Black people throughout U.S. history with an intensity that this both eye-opening and educational. Jerkins’ quest to connect with her ancestors will undoubtedly urge readers to research their own. A thrilling, emotional, and engaging ride that almost commands the reader to turn the page, Wandering in Strange Lands is required reading, accurately widening the lens of American history..

Essayist Jerkins...sets her family history against the backdrop of the Great Migration—the period from 1910 to 1970 when six million blacks left the South for other parts of the country—in this forthright and informative account.

Driven by a need to understand her own identity, cultural critic Jerkins mounted an investigation into her family’s tangled history, recounting in this candid memoir the surprising discoveries that emerged from her emotional journey.