The Known World /// Edward P. Jones

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.

BIO

Edward Paul Jones is an American novelist and short story writer. He became popular for writing about the African-American experience in the United States, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the International Dublin Literary Award for The Known World. 

REVIEWS

“Jones has written a book of tremendous moral intricacy.” — The New Yorker

“A masterpiece that deserves a place in the American literary canon.” -- Time

“Breathtaking....A fascinating counterweight to Toni Morrison’s Beloved....It is essential reading.” -- Entertainment Weekly

”An exemplar of historical fiction. . . [it] will subdue your preconceptions, enrich your perceptions and trouble your sleep.. . .The way Jones tells this story. . .recalls Cormac McCarthy, William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.” -- Newsday

”An exemplar of historical fiction. . . [it] will subdue your preconceptions, enrich your perceptions and trouble your sleep.. . .The way Jones tells this story. . .recalls Cormac McCarthy, William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.” -- Starred Library Journal

“Astonishingly rich. . .The particulars and consequences of the ‘right’ of humans to own other humans are dramatized with unprecedented ingenuity and intensity, in a harrowing tale that scarcely ever raises its voice. . . . It should be a major prize contender.” -- Kirkus Reviews (starred)

[H]  Amistad Press  /  August 14, 2003

1.3" H x 9.32" L x 6.43" W (1.27 lbs) 400 pages

[P]  Amistad Press  /  December 13, 2013

 1.26" H x 8.29" L x 5.56" W (0.98 lbs) 432 pages