The Great Wherever

REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK - BOOK OF THE MONTH PICK - Named a Most Anticipated book by NPR, People, Oprah Daily, Esquire, and more

"A wonderful novel about family and tradition, perfect for the holidays." -Reese Witherspoon

An impulsive and heartbroken woman inherits her father's share of a Tennessee farm that is rich in family secrets and occupied with busybody ghosts in this sweeping family portrait.

The dead are relentless gossips, or at least these dead are...

At thirty-two, Aubrey Lamb is stumbling through adulthood. Underpaid and working multiple jobs in Washington, DC, she's grieving the end of a serious relationship and the recent loss of her father. When Aubrey learns she has inherited his stake in a sizable Tennessee farm, she sees an opportunity to get out of the city-and to erase a mounting pile of debt.

Watching her arrival with great interest are four ghosts-Aubrey's ancestors, who've staked their own claims to the farm and who never hesitate to pass judgment on the mistakes made by the living, be they romantic, financial, or sartorial. As Aubrey reconnects with her living family, another story unfolds in parallel: the history of the land, beginning with its purchase by Thomas, Aubrey's great-grandfather and one of the first Black landowners in his community. Though Thomas hopes to give his children a homestead on which they could flourish, the land proves to be a burdensome inheritance. Over the years, it turns the Lambs against one another, culminating in a catastrophic tragedy that splinters the family and echoes through the decades.

Now, as the clock ticks on a potential sale of the farm, the ghosts fear expulsion from the home they've made, and Aubrey must weigh the hopes and burdens of her forebears with the very real needs of her future.

An expansive family saga told with a wry and distinctly modern voice, The Great Wherever is at once grand and intimate; it explores the ways we learn to define ourselves through and against our families, how we carry on after loss, and how the past lives on in all of us.

1. There is a long tradition of using ghost stories to explore William Faulkner's famous dictum: "The past is never dead. It's not even past." How does The Great Wherever fit into this tradition? How does it complicate it?

2. Do you believe in ghosts? Does your family?

3. What stories does your family tell about itself? Do different members have different versions of these tales? What varies most-details, things done, things said, feelings?

4. Many of the characters in the novel face various challenges related to love and romantic relationships. How do their struggles parallel each other and diverge?

5. Relatedly, several of the women in the novel have to make choices involving pregnancy. How do the very different contexts in which each exists (from their social milieus to the year they live in) affect their choice?

6. Do you agree with how Thomas divided the land for inheritance? Is there anything he could have done differently to mitigate the ensuing strife?

7. From Aubrey's mushrooms to Janis's barbecue restaurant, food plays many different roles throughout the novel. What are some of these? What does food mean to the different characters?

8. We see glimpses of how several different households function, from the Lambs to the Josephs (Bellamy's family) to the Elledges. How do they differ? Which dynamic reminds you the most of your own?

9. How does Le'Dar's status as the narrator influence the telling of the novel? How would it be different if another family member had been narrating?

10. How much does Aubrey change throughout the novel, and in what ways? What do you think is next for her?

REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK - BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB PICK

"A wonderful novel about family and tradition, perfect for the holidays." -Reese Witherspoon

Named a Most Anticipated Book of Summer 2026 by NPR, People, Oprah Daily, Harper's Bazaar, Town and Country, Esquire, The New York Post, The Boston Globe, WGBH, Real Simple, The Root, Publishers Weekly, and more

"Delicious . . . Our ghost-narrator hashes out the tale with an endearing mix of tenderness and resentment... Woven through this story are enough characters and plotlines to fill several more novels, but Sanders handles the abundance of material with restraint... Sanders's narrative shifts gorgeously through time and place to reveal all that's been passed down through generations of Lambs."

"Expectations were running high for Shannon Sanders' first novel... A playful and poignant intergenerational saga about a haunted farm in which ancestors watch over and critique the living for posterity and entertainment, The Great Wherever leaps over that bar... Inventive and new . . . I was hooked from the first sentence." -NPR, 15 Most Anticipated Books of Summer

"A gripping saga of Black legacy." -People, Must-Read Books for Summer 2026

"Wonderfully satisfying ... [The] voice is one of the more winning I've encountered in any novel of the past decade." -The Boston Globe

"Simply put, this book is a pleasure and a treasure. Witty and wise, intelligent and engaging, heartbreaking and heartmending. Shannon Sanders is a writer to keep your eye on." -Tayari Jones

"The Great Wherever is an epic and deeply human story of family and fortune that reaches across the divide between the living and the dead with grace, humor, and emotional conviction. Shannon Sanders's love for her characters is matched only by her ability to make us care about them as much as she does. I'm in awe of what she accomplishes in this astoundingly good debut novel." -Patrick Ryan, New York Times bestselling author of Buckeye

"If you like a little moral complexity along with your entertainment, I recommend Shannon Sanders' rich, Black, generational epic The Great Wherever... Fans of The Love Songs of W.E.B DuBois, this one's for you." -WYPR

"Sanders's debut novel sings, joining a choir of voices alongside Toni Morrison and August Wilson in conjuring memory with contemporary urgency." -The Brooklyn Rail

"This is a truly magnificent novel from a uniquely powerful voice. A bighearted triumph." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"A gripping multigenerational epic of land, home, and inheritance . . . Sanders poses timely questions of ownership and ancestry, and she packs the novel with indelible imagery... This resonates." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Powerful . . . I ate up this debut. " -Modern Mrs. Darcy

"A debut novel that is part family saga, part historical fiction, part ghost story, and entirely captivating . . . Sanders expertly portrays familial relationships, imbuing her characters with pathos and humor as they grapple with the complexities of family legacy." -Booklist

"Sanders is a sublime writer with unparalleled talent. I could read her writing all day, every day." -Debutiful, The Most Anticipated Debut Books of 2026

"A brilliant creation-funny and chaotic." -Good Housekeeping (UK)

"Sanders writes with pace and emotion, tackling a multigenerational story rooted in the American South. Oh, and the afterlife has a starring role." -Elle (UK)