“The Warmth of Other Suns” is a Nonfiction Book Like No Other

A well-loved copy of “The Warmth of Other Suns”. The book spans The Great Migration and beyond, from 1915 to the early 2000s, and follows three central characters who exemplify the common experiences of individuals who took part in The Great Migration. Photo Credit: 

Aspen Hickman

Aspen Hickman, Junior Editor and News Desk Lead for The Powderhorn

Most people assume that nonfiction books are boring. And sure, a lot of them are. Most people don’t want to read an 800-page tome about Civil War era diplomatic relationships or a footnote-heavy catalog of shipping logs or formal letters. “The Warmth of Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson is a prime example of a book that breaks the pattern of dry, uninspired nonfiction. 

Weaving together the personal stories of three main characters and countless others, Wilkerson creates an unmatched image of The Great Migration, the book’s focus. Following single migrants as opposed to vast movements proves an incredibly effective tool to explore the intimate facts of life for people of color in the Jim Crow South and their exodus northward, toward the vision of a better life. 

Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize winner and investigative journalist for the New York Times, interviewed hundreds of people, both those left behind and those who left. She shares her experience as the daughter of a migrant, as well as the friendship she found with the subjects of her interviews. It is an extremely personal view of their lives, the risks they took, and the eventual collapse of the dreams they had fought for. 

Though published in 2010, most of Wilkerson’s central interviews took place from the mid 1990s to early 2000s. By the time the book was compiled and published, all three of the central figures of the text had passed away. Wilkerson attended every funeral, drove one subject to dialysis treatments, visited another in the hospital, and took another on a journey back to the South before her death. 

This approach to history is what makes “The Warmth of Other Suns” so incredible. It is not only a recounting of events, but a close look at the individuals who took part in them. While this approach is difficult or impossible to accomplish for many topics further back in history, the nature of The Great Migration makes this method work perfectly. 

Interspersed throughout the book are a variety of quotes from historians, news articles, scientific studies, poems, and songs. It is from these passages that the book gets its title, specifically a passage discussing a star that shares many of the characteristics of our own sun. Discovered in 1918, when the first wave of migrants began their journey, it is an auspicious symbol. 

It’s a book that makes you feel intense emotion, no matter your own experiences. At the heart of this journey is the idea that, no matter if you stay or go between, you can never go home again. Both the places migrants left and the ones they arrived in were changed irreparably, just as the reader is.