The Known World, by Edward P. Jones

Books sometimes do very well, critically, and then slip away again. I had seen The Known World on several book lists but had never heard it mentioned elsewhere, despite the fact it won the Pulitzer in 2004 (before my time, perhaps; in 2004 I was mostly reading Iain Banks and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac).

It's a hard book to summarise. It's about slavery, and I mean really about slavery, the concept of people owning people. By describing with great care - and it could honestly be stated, love - a society in which the concept of human ownership is both accepted and occasionally lauded, it opens to the sunlight the vast depths of cognitive dissonance that are the only option for a 'moral' society that allows slavery.

Henry Townsend is a free black man in Virginia, his freedom hard-earned by his parents. Under the tutelage of his former master, the most powerful man in Virginia, Townsend builds an estate of his own, purchasing first property and then slaves. The prospect of a free black man owning other black slaves creates a twisted mirror to a warped situation, and as Townsend's fortunes increase the consequences on his heart and the hearts of others stretch across Virginia and across generations.

If you're looking for a linear narrative then The Known World isn't for you. We see characters born, watch them age and die in the space of chapters, then see them reborn again as the text loops back to follow the luck and troubles of another family, another stranger, another semi-myth. This layered approach gathers momentum and weight, as noted elsewhere the cumulative effect of it is devastating.

If you have little stomach for misery or despair then the novel will be fraught and gut-wrenching. Characters struggle and survive and flourish with nothing but their own good conscience and fortitude to propel them, only to have everything - sometimes their lives - snatched away by the mechanism of slavery.

It's beautifully told. The writing is by necessity disconnected, almost dreamlike. It says nothing about slavery on its own. But its elegiac, misty window into the characters heads and hearts lets their action and thoughts say all that needs to be said. I'm very much looking forward to reading All Aunt Hagar's Children, Jones's 2007 collection of short stories set in Washington DC. I think his writing style is perfect for that form, and in fact The Known World almost works as a collection of short stories and flashes, with Townsend its central link.

Slavery is not antique. It is not long gone from the minds of men, and its wounds run deep and ill-healed. The Known World, by its sheer scope, reminds us of why that is so. Strongly recommended.