Born into slavery and abandoned by her escapee mother while still a girl, Cora knows exactly how little her life is valued in the Antebellum South. Left to fend for herself against her barbaric white captors, she must also stand up to her fellow slaves who would steal both her pathetic patch of ground and her virginity. An opportunity to escape sees her flee one set of horrors for another, choosing the slim chance of survival and freedom over a guaranteed life of hell.

Colson Whitehead weaves reality and fantasy together in a story that best-selling author Emma Dabiri describes as ‘otherworldly, underworldly’, in her exclusive new introduction.