The first novel from the acclaimed author of Washington Black--an
exploration of explores the sweep of history, the binds of blood, the
challenges of middle age, and the pain of exile, witnessed through the
experiences of one family whose hope blinds them to threatening forces
that could tear them apart.
It is 1968 and Samuel Tyne has lived in exile in the chaotic New World
for more than a dozen years. Born in Ghana, educated at Oxford, Samuel
was expected to accomplish great things. But the middling government
employee fears he has fallen short of that promise. When he inherits a
crumbling mansion in the small, provincial town of Aster, Canada, he
packs up his protesting family, believing that he has been offered a
fabled second chance--and this time, he will not fail.
An all-white enclave that was originally settled by freed slaves and
runaways from America, the idyllic Aster feels like a miracle. But as
time passes, Samuel begins to see the town is not the haven he hoped:
riven by political infighting, a community resistant to change, and most
disturbing, a number of mysterious fires that have put the townsfolk on
edge. His family, too, begins to splinter. Stubbornly clinging to his
ambitious dreams, Samuel finds the successful life he's struggled to
build is disintegrating around him, and a dark current of menace in the
town is turned upon his family--that they may be too powerless to fight.
