The Known World
ByPublisher 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
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities485 Reviews
Tawallah
Created 16 days ago
“The Known World is the debut novel of Edward P. Jones which won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 2004 among others. It is highly underrated and comes highly recommended.
Written in a style known to more suited to creative nonfiction, Jones disturbs the reader from the typical style of historical fiction not only but insertion of newspaper articles, academic work or future events of the character whom is in the spotlight but with the content of this book. In the 1830s to 1850s in Manchester County, Virginia, this book begins with the death of a slave owner, Henry Townsend. Townsend was a slave whose father paid for his freedom but who is more influenced by his previous owner, Williams Robbins. And so begins a reckoning with the past in America when even blacks owned slaves. To say that slavery is complex, is an understatement. And in Jones’ hands, this narrative is sublime, jarring and needs to be more widely read.”Erin Siegel
Created 18 days ago
Rita Wilbur
Created 29 days ago
Arianna Rose
Created about 1 month agoAbout Edward P. Jones
Edward P. Jones, the New York Times bestselling author, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, for fiction, the National Book Critics Circle award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Lannan Literary Award for The Known World; he also received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2004. His first collection of stories, Lost in the City, won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was short listed for the National Book Award. His second collection, All Aunt Hagar’s Children, was a finalist for the Pen/Faulkner Award. He has been an instructor of fiction writing at a range of universities, including Princeton. He lives in Washington, D.C.
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