The Known World
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
From Edward P. Jones comes one of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory—winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.
The Known World tells the story of Henry Townsend, a black farmer and former slave who falls under the tutelage of William Robbins, the most powerful man in Manchester County, Virginia. Making certain he never circumvents the law, Townsend runs his affairs with unusual discipline. But when death takes him unexpectedly, his widow, Caldonia, can't uphold the estate's order, and chaos ensues.
Edward P. Jones has woven a footnote of history into an epic that takes an unflinching look at slavery in all its moral complexities.
“A masterpiece that deserves a place in the American literary canon.”—Time
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Edward P. Jones’ sweeping, Pulitzer Prize–winning epic is exactly the kind of book the phrase “modern classic” was made for. Henry Townsend is a former slave—who becomes a slave owner himself. His journey from working the fields to holding the whip is a dense one, full of harrowing violence and complex relationships. Jones tells this captivating story in deliberately minimalist, plain language that maximizes its emotional impact and highlights the central theme of slavery as a disease that infects everyone around it. The Known World opens a different window into a brutal period of American history.
