How to Say Babylon: A Memoir

Written by Safiya Sinclair

Narrated by Safiya Sinclair

National Book Critics Circle Award Winner
A New York Times Notable Book
Best Book of the Year for The Washington Post* The New Yorker * Time * The Atlantic * Los Angeles Times * NPR * Harper’s Bazaar * Vulture * Town & Country * San Francisco Chronicle * Christian Science Monitor * Mother Jones * Barack Obama
A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick

“Impossible to put down...Each lyrical line sings and soars, freeing the reader as it did the writer.” —People

With echoes of Educated and The Glass Castle, How to Say Babylon is a “lushly observed and keenly reflective chronicle” (The Washington Post), brilliantly recounting the author’s struggle to break free of her rigid religious upbringing and navigate the world on her own terms.

Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and a militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, was obsessed with the ever-present threat of the corrupting evils of the Western world outside their home, and worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure. For him, a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience.

Safiya’s extraordinary mother, though loyal to her father, gave her the one gift she knew would take Safiya beyond the stretch of beach and mountains in Jamaica their family called home: a world of books, knowledge, and education she conjured almost out of thin air. When she introduced Safiya to poetry, Safiya’s voice awakened. As she watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under relentless domesticity, Safiya’s rebellion against her father’s rules set her on an inevitable collision course with him. Her education became the sharp tool to hone her own poetic voice and carve her path to liberation. Rich in emotion and page-turning drama, How to Say Babylon is “a melodious wave of memories” of a woman finding her own power (NPR).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Oct 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9781797157115

Safiya Sinclair

Safiya Sinclair was born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She is the author of the memoir How to Say Babylon, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, a finalist for the Women’s Prize in Nonfiction, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, and the Kirkus Prize. How to Say Babylon was one of the New York Times’s 100 Notable Books of the year, a Washington Post Top 10 Book of 2023, a TIME magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Book of 2023, one of The Atlantic’s 10 Best Books of 2023, a Read with Jenna/TODAY show book club pick, and one of President Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2023. How to Say Babylon was also named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, NPR, The Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, Vulture, and Harper’s Bazaar, among others, and was an ALA Notable Book of the Year. The audiobook of How to Say Babylon was named a Best Audiobook of the Year by AudioFile magazine. Sinclair is also the author of the poetry collection Cannibal, winner of a Whiting Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Addison Metcalf Award in Literature, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry, and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. Sinclair’s other honours include a Guggenheim fellowship, and fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, the Civitella Rainieri Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, MacDowell, Yaddo, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She is currently an associate professor of creative writing at Arizona State University.  

Reviews for How to Say Babylon

[akouakoro · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Safiya‘a prose is just incredible . I drunk the words as my own. Forever grateful for this book

[sabrocks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Such an amazing listen. There were parts where I was exclaiming out loud in disbelief, upset, or excitement. There were parts where I understood the monster. There were parts where I felt like I was listening to this person who truly faced what she needed to face to be who she needed to become. Whew! Beautiful!

[Erin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very tough story but so beautiful written and spoken. Glad I listened to the audiobook.

[Dayna Bennett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book! A memoir that reads like a novel, every line is poetry, so visually stunning and creatively rendered you truly lose yourself in it. Safiya’s family’s story will lift you up even as it breaks your heart. At the end of it all, this is a love letter to her mother so don’t miss her acknowledgments at the end.

[Paloma Sanchez · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Heart-breaking, honest, raw. It hit on a personal level and I am glad to have discovered a great writer.

[Nas · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My mouth is still on the floor what a beautiful memoir. I highly recommend

[Laura Sainsbury · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Stunning memoir. I absolutely loved this book. It will be a top book for 2024 but also a favorite book of all time.

[Anna · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Stunning, lyrical, emotional writing. It’s everything you want in a memoir.

[Diaka Thiam · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful memoir. This may have been the best memoir I’ve read this year. I love the poetic style of the book and the way Sinclair tells her story. I want to read more of her poems now.

[dana moulds · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

ABSOLUTELY MEZMERIZING!!! the cadence with which this audiobook is read was melodic and transfixing; drawing me into every word spoken. the bravery of the protagonist, Safiya, to imagine a life within the words of her poetry, gave me such inspiration to create better and future lineages for the generations that will come after me. thank you for your vulnerability in telling your story.

[Sharon Traylor · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was fabulous. It is true and raw and 200 percent honest I love this so much my heart hurts for her. Great job. Much healing to you