Ta-Nehisi Coates began The Message intending to write about writing, but it evolved into a meditation on how stories and myths shape—and distort—our realities.

In three linked essays, Coates journeys from Dakar to South Carolina to Palestine, each revealing a struggle between myth and truth. In Dakar, he confronts the romantic Afrocentric visions of his youth against the tangible legacy of slavery. In Columbia, South Carolina, he witnesses both the transformative power and the backlash of America’s racial reckoning. And in Palestine, he sees firsthand how entrenched national myths obscure human suffering on both sides of the conflict.

Written at a moment of global upheaval, The Message is a profound call to break free from destructive nationalist stories and face the liberating force of difficult truths.