by Ta-Nehisi Coates
(4.3 / 5)

BLURB

Born into slavery, Young Hiram Walker. Hiram was deprived of all her memories when his mother was sold off-but was born with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram drowns almost in a lake, his life is saved by the same force. This brush with death gives birth to a Hiram desperation and a daring scheme: to leave the only home he has ever known. Thus starts an unexpected journey that brings Hiram to desperate insurgent cells in the wilderness from the oppressive grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations, from the Deep South coffin to increasingly idealistic revolutions in the West. Just as he is involved in the subterranean war between the free and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to save the family that he left behind endures. This is the dramatic story of an atrocity that has been inflicted on generations of women, men and children-the brutal and capricious division of families-and the battle they fought to make life with the ones they loved. Written by one of the most thrilling thinkers and authors of today, The Water Dancer is a propulsive, transcendent piece of work that recovers the innocence of those from whom all was robbed.