From National Book Award-nominated author Edward P. Jones comes a debut
novel of stunning emotional depth and unequaled literary power
Henry Townsend, a farmer, boot maker, and former slave, through the
surprising twists and unforeseen turns of life in antebellum Virginia,
becomes proprietor of his own plantation--as well his own slaves. When
he dies, his widow Caldonia succumbs to profound grief, and things begin
to fall apart at their plantation: slaves take to escaping under the
cover of night, and families who had once found love under the weight of
slavery begin to betray one another. Beyond the Townsend household, the
known world also unravels: low-paid white patrollers stand watch as
slave “speculators” sell free black people into slavery, and rumors of
slave rebellions set white families against slaves who have served them
for years.
An ambitious, courageous, luminously written masterwork, The Known World
seamlessly weaves the lives of the freed and the enslaved--and allows
all of us a deeper understanding of the enduring multidimensional world
created by the institution of slavery. The Known World not only marks
the return of an extraordinarily gifted writer, it heralds the
publication of a remarkable contribution to the canon of American
classic literature.
