007 The Known World

The Known World, 2003 by Edward P. Jones and winner of the 2004 Pulitzer prize.

The book revolves around a dead black slave owner, Henry Townsend. Events and stories of people connected to him -- his old master, parents, wife, teacher, and slaves -- are presented in snatches in and out of flux.

Ed first tells us what will or has happened and then goes back, like memory, to fill in the gaps. It's like a reverse mystery where you see the crime scene, and then work backwards to understand how things happened the way they did. For example, in one scene, a slave starts carving a doll for his daughter, and we are told that this child would, in her nineties, live to ask for this very doll on her deathbed.

I have read many books with the subject of slavery and The Known World differs from them by focusing on slavery as a keeping of boundaries. Little is known about black slave owners and this is another distinguishing feature of Ed's book. And so in short, as a one sentence sum up, this book is about the boundaries between black slave owners and their slaves.