--- title: To Free the Captives: 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 description: Find out why "To Free the Captives" by Tracy K. Smith is on TIME's list of the must-read books of the year. canonical: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332255/to-free-the-captives/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-11-14T12:30:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:25:12.055Z og:title: 'To Free the Captives' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 og:description: Here's why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332255/to-free-the-captives/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31b859e5a5c67978/698a41fd86f68eff3c6f2f0c/ToFreeTheCaptives.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'To Free the Captives' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'To Free the Captives' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 twitter:description: Here's why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31b859e5a5c67978/698a41fd86f68eff3c6f2f0c/ToFreeTheCaptives.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 14, 2023 # To Free the Captives by Tracy K. Smith by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  “Often enough, hunting through archival records, I feel as though I am traipsing through a dark mine with only a flickering lamp by which to see,” [Tracy K. Smith](https://time.com/6102109/tracy-k-smith-such-color-interview/) writes in _To Free the Captives: A Plea For the American Soul._ In the striking book, Smith attempts to retrace her lineage from Sunflower, Ala.—where her father’s family lived and where her grandfather returned after World War I—to the present day_._ A memoir as well as a meditation on the often fraught nature of institutional record keeping, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, a former U.S. poet laureate, bares her soul to understand her family’s story as it relates to the enduring violence and subjugation of the Black community within American history. In her process to color in more of her family’s past, she challenges readers to sit with what it means when history fails us—and, crucially, when it’s given the opportunity to liberate us. —_Rachel Sonis_ **Buy Now**: _To Free the Captives_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780593534762) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3suhr2T) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332255/to-free-the-captives/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332255/to-free-the-captives/"},"headline":"To Free the Captives","datePublished":"2023-11-14T12:30:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:25:12.055Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332255/to-free-the-captives/","keywords":["Books","list","best books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31b859e5a5c67978/698a41fd86f68eff3c6f2f0c/ToFreeTheCaptives.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31b859e5a5c67978/698a41fd86f68eff3c6f2f0c/ToFreeTheCaptives.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332255/to-free-the-captives/","name":"To Free the Captives"}}]}] ```