The Message (Coates book)

The Message

First edition cover
Author	Ta-Nehisi Coates
Audio read by	Ta-Nehisi Coates
Language	English
Publisher	One World
Publication date	October 1, 2024
Publication place	New York
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback), e-book, audiobook
Pages	256 pages
ISBN	978-0-593-23038-1 (First edition hardcover)

The Message is a nonfiction book by American author Ta-Nehisi Coates, published on October 1, 2024, by Random House under its One World imprint. The Associated Press described it as "part memoir, part travelogue, and part writing primer". The narrative reflects on his visits to Dakar, Senegal; Chapin, South Carolina; and the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The latter half of the book covers Coates' 10-day trip in the summer of 2023 to Israel-Palestine -- in his first time in the region -- and his argument against "the elevation of factual complexity over self-evident morality". The New York Times called it "the heart of the book, and the part that is bound to attract the most attention". According to a profile in New York, The Message "lays forth the case that the Israeli occupation is a moral crime, one that has been all but covered up by the West". In the book, Coates writes, "I don't think I ever, in my life, felt the glare of racism burn stranger and more intense than in Israel."

Reception

Kirkus Reviews, in its starred review, evaluated the book as a "revelatory meditation on shattering journeys".

Jennifer Szalai of The New York Times questioned Coates' "conspicuous" choice to keep his coverage of contemporary Israel in his narrative to his 10-day trip and also not include mention the October 7 attack on Israel.

Daniel Bergner of The Atlantic condemned Coates as having sacrificed crucial complexity: "Purity of argument is Coates's desire; complexity, his self-declared enemy. In this, in his refusal to wrestle with conflicting realities, the essay feels desperate. It feels devoid of the layers and depths of the most profound moral writing, devoid of the universalist goal, the exploration of "common humanity" that Coates has extolled. Complexity, not purity, is the essence of the moral and the humane."