So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia's proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the Deep South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he's ever known. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life.

When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her-but was gifted with a mysterious power. 'This potent book about America's most disgraceful sin establishes as a first-rate novelist.'- San Francisco Chronicle IN DEVELOPMENT AS A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE - Adapted by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Kamilah Forbes, produced by MGM, Plan B, and Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Films NOMINATED FOR THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD - NAMED ONE OF PASTE'S BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE - NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time - NPR - The Washington Post - Chicago Tribune - Vanity Fair - Esquire - Good Housekeeping - Paste - Town & Country - The New York Public Library - Kirkus Reviews - Library Journal Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. Even as he's enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, all Hiram wants is to return to the Walker Plantation to free the family he left behind-but to do so, he must first master his magical gift and reconstruct the story of his greatest loss.'-īook Synopsis #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK - From the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me, a boldly conjured debut novel about a magical gift, a devastating loss, and an underground war for freedom. So begins an unexpected journey into the covert war on slavery that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia's proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the deep South to dangerously utopic movements in the North. Spurred on by his improvised plantation family, Thena, his chosen mother, a woman of few words and many secrets, and Sophia, a young woman fighting her own war even as she and Hiram fall in love, he becomes determined to escape the only home he's ever known.

This strange brush with death forces a new urgency on Hiram's private rebellion. Hiram almost drowns when he crashes a carriage into a river, but is saved from the depths by a force he doesn't understand, a blue light that lifts him up and lands him a mile away. About the Book 'Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage-and lost his mother and all memory of her when he was a child-but he is also gifted with a mysterious power.

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