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My Soul to Keep (African Immortals series, 1) Paperback – April 8, 1998

by Tananarive Due (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,102 ratings
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"An eerie epic. I loved this novel." -- Stephen King

The award-winning master of horror, acclaimed author, screenwriter, and scholar Tananarive Due’s classic African Immortals series starts with an electrifying piece of dark fantasy, My Soul to Keep.


 When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost. Now, his immortal brethren have decided David must return and leave his family in Miami. Instead, David vows to invoke a forbidden ritual to keep Jessica and his daughter with him forever.


Harrowing, engrossing and skillfully rendered, My Soul to Keep traps Jessica between the desperation of immortals who want to rob her of her life and a husband who wants to rob her of her soul. With deft plotting and an unforgettable climax, this tour de force that Stephen King called 'An eerie epic' is sure to win Due a legion of new fans. 

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Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 4
    African Immortals Series
  2. Print length
    352 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Harper Voyager
  5. Publication date
    April 8, 1998
  6. Dimensions
    6.12 x 0.88 x 9.25 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    006105366X
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0061053665
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost. Now, his immortal brethren have decided David must return and leave his family in Miami. Instead, David vows to invoke a forbidden ritual to keep Jessica and his daughter with him forever.

Harrowing, engrossing and skillfully rendered, My Soul to Keep traps Jessica between the desperation of immortals who want to rob her of her life and a husband who wants to rob her of her soul. With deft plotting and an unforgettable climax, this tour de force reminiscent of early Anne Rice will win Due a new legion of fans.

About the Author

Tananarive Due (tah-nah-nah-REEVE doo) is an award-winning author who teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA. She is an executive producer on Shudder's groundbreaking documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. Her books include Ghost Summer: Stories, My Soul to Keep, The Good House, and The Reformatory. She and her late mother, civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due, coauthored Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights. She is married to author Steven Barnes, with whom she collaborates on screenplays. They live with their son, Jason. 

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Voyager; First Paperback Printing edition (April 8, 1998)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 006105366X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0061053665
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.1 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.12 x 0.88 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,102 ratings

About the author

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Tananarive Due

Tananarive Due

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TANANARIVE DUE (tah-nah-nah-REEVE doo) is an award-winning author who teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA.

A leading voice in Black speculative fiction for more than 20 years, Due has won an American Book Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a British Fantasy Award, and her writing has been included in best-of-the-year anthologies. Her books include The Reformatory (October 31, 2023), The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, Ghost Summer: Stories, My Soul to Keep, and The Good House. She and her late mother, civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due, co-authored Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights.

She and her husband/collaborator, Steven Barnes, wrote the Black Horror graphic novel The Keeper, illustrated by Marco Finnegan. Due and Barnes co-host a podcast, "Lifewriting: Write for Your Life!"

Join her email list at www.tananarivelist.com

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
1,102 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

virginia russell
5.0 out of 5 stars I Want To Be Immortal Too
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2024
Verified Purchase
This book was sooo good! I love sci-fi and this hit all of the marks. Great characters, intriguing plot and great writing. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.
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H. Grove (errantdreams)
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful and unusual
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2021
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Tananarive Due’s My Soul to Keep (African Immortals series, 1) is almost a vampire book, but not quite. There’s no blood-drinking, but there is an immortality that can be passed on to others through blood. Jessica, her husband David, and their daughter Kira just lost their Great Dane, Princess, and it seems to be hitting David particularly hard. We learn very early on that David has lived for about 500 years so far, and he’s worried that a group called “the Searchers” has caught up to him and that he’ll have to leave his family–again, because this has happened to him before. The Searchers are a part of a brotherhood formed of people like David and the apparent first of their kind, who said he was made immortal by Christ’s blood. David is deemed to be cleaving too close to humans, thus risking discovery, and the Searchers have come to take him back to Africa. This time, however, he’s determined not to give up his wife and daughter–even if it means killing a few people who could conceivably be a threat to them.

There are some fascinating themes in here. Jessica is a religious woman, while David has gradually become an atheist. Her faith is important to her, and definitely impacts how she handles the things she deals with in this story. She’s coming face-to-face with something that should be impossible, something she’s likely to see as a miracle from God, when the man who is embodying this miracle doesn’t believe in God. Her inner (and outer!) conflict is very well-handled.

David is a living memory of slavery. He ended up in America during the time of slavery, and died several times then. He was also witness to a great deal of horrifying violence against Black people, and that has scarred him as well. These past issues, plus his desire to have a family when he’s supposed to be living apart from humanity, set him apart from his fellows and risk the very people he loves.

There seem to be a few ghosts to add to the paranormal side of things. The ghost of Jessica’s grandfather seems to speak to both her and Kira, although it’s hard to know for sure. Ghosts and visions play a low-key part in the story, and they’re woven in so naturally.

There are misunderstandings between people that make things much harder on everyone, but I never felt like these were the stereotypical kind of fictional misunderstandings where if people just communicated halfway decently they wouldn’t even be an issue. The characters have so much depth, and are so different from one another, that they never seemed to act out of character in any way. We get to see things from both Jessica’s and David’s point of view, and it really brings everything home.

This is an emotional rollercoaster of a ride set within a gorgeous paranormal context. I look forward to reading the sequel!

Content note for explicit sex, child death, animal illness and death, depiction of slavery and the slurs and violence that go with it, animal murder.
13 people found this helpful
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Michelle R.
4.0 out of 5 stars Creepy, sad, abusive marriage, immortality
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2022
Verified Purchase
Good. Moments of horror, the premise at times seems like it brushes up against fantasy. Multiple examples of animal death/cruelty. Other things that are major triggers for people, so find a more exhaustive list. Nice characterization. Exploration of a marriage, the passage of time, what it's like to be human.
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Big Sistah Patty
5.0 out of 5 stars Thinkin' Fiction -- the Ancient African
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2006
Verified Purchase
It baffles me why some folks want to force Ms. Due to be a horror writer. She is absolutely not, and this is why I love her work. She incorportes realism, with myticism, the supernatural, but not horror. The people live very real lives, but have some quirks about them. Ms. Due write fiction with depth. She makes you think, and is an excellent, imaginative storyteller.

I feel like David and Jessica are members of my family. Every sistah needs a David/Dawit, of course, minus his indiscretions and personality deficits. If you are looking for a great love story, thrown in for good measure, murder, secrets, suspense, and the unbelievable, why My Soul to Keep is for you.

I discovered Mrs. Due a couple of years ago by accident. I was in the library one day and I saw this book with this very menacing cover. Out of curiosity, I opened the book and began to read. I was hooked. It was love at first sight. Imagine my utter joy when I discovered that The Living Blood was a Sequel to My Soul to Keep. Immediately, I returned to the library a few weeks later and checked out My Soul to Keep. I kept that book for almost 6 weeks. At that point, I knew I had to have my own copies for my library.

This is a love, suspense, supernatural thriller. David and Jessica are a happily married couple. Actually, Jessica has counted herself so lucky in meeting a fantastic man so early in her life. In comparison to so many sisters, where the pool of viable & desirable marriage partners is very shallow, she has a good man. She could not have asked for a better man. He is a great provider, husband, lover and father. Unbeknownst to Jessica, Dawit/David has a secret. When it is discovered, all hell breaks loose.

The book is so well written and highly imaginative. Mrs. Due makes you believe the unbelievable, that immortals inhabitant the earth and live among mortals. She is an excellent story teller. What also attracts me to her is she is obviously well-versed in African American history. On the sneak, she gives the reader a history lesson.

I also appreciate the fact that the black men are fully developed human beings, not caricatures. I know many sistahs would love to have a man like Dawit. He is everything a woman could ask for - well almost.

This is not a vampire story, though I love them. This is about human beings, with no supernatural powers. They just want permanently kick da bucket. Jessica doesn't realize her man is way older than he says. 30? Yeah right? Enjoy! The saga begins.

I love this author. More people need to know who she is.
11 people found this helpful
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D.L.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book & Auther
Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2024
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I’ve read the series & purchased this book for my son who really enjoyed it as well.
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Top reviews from other countries

John Mathai
3.0 out of 5 stars Bland
Reviewed in India on December 30, 2023
Verified Purchase
It is a story of a family with a supernatural element. Could have been more thrilling. There is no doubt of the authors storytelling ability. However, lacked the punch a story like that can deliver.
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Tina Coco-Bassey
5.0 out of 5 stars Came on time and was in great condition
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 25, 2020
Verified Purchase
It came before the due date and it was in great condition — practically brand new with one mark, just as the seller described. Really happy with this buy.
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Tina Coco-Bassey
5.0 out of 5 stars Came on time and was in great condition
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 25, 2020
It came before the due date and it was in great condition — practically brand new with one mark, just as the seller described. Really happy with this buy.
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