Edward P. Jones

 

The Known World

This superbly crafted historical novel tells a frightening story about intersections of race, class, and power in antebellum Virginia. It considers the oft-examined dynamics between the white plantation owner and the people he enslaves. But it sets up an unusual premise by introducing a free Black character who also establishes a slave-run plantation. His death leads to an unexpected unfolding of events and a surprising and empowering ending.

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Lost in the City

The short stories in this collection delve into Black Americans’ struggles in the inner city in the later part of the twentieth century. The first and third person narrators relay events in a deceptively direct manner that at the same time captures the characters’ profound worries, struggles, and joys.