With lyricism reminiscent of Toni Morrison and James Baldwin, Robert Jones Jr tells an unflinching story of a forbidden union between two enslaved men in the Deep South of America. Isaiah and Samuel are lovers. The barn is their home on the plantation, the one place they can go to be alone together. It becomes a place of refuge where their love can flourish, blurring the horrors of the vicious world around them. The others know that there are many ways to shelter from the most evil of regimes, and keeping the community’s tender secrets is one of them.

A masterful debut novel of the pain of inheritance, the power of hope, and what happens when brutality threatens the purest form of serenity.