The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

In “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” (Random House; $30), Isabel Wilkerson, who earned a Pulitzer while working as the Times’ Chicago bureau chief, and now directs the narrative-nonfiction program at Boston University, calls the exodus “the biggest underreported story of the twentieth century.”

In the winter of 1916, as Americans read the news of unimaginable slaughter in a distant yet rapidly spreading European war, it was easy to overlook stories like the one in The Chicago Defender reporting that several black families in Selma, Ala., had left the South.

“The Warmth of Other Suns,” [is a] work that seems to have lasted the better part of 20 years and taken a piece of Ms. Wilkerson’s heart in the process. Her hard work, keen insight and passionate personal commitment make “The Warmth of Other Suns” a landmark piece of nonfiction.