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From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Color of Water comes a powerful page-turner about a runaway slave and a determined slave catcher.
Riverhead Hardcover
February 2008
On Sale: February 5, 2008
368 pages ISBN: 1594489726 EAN: 9781594489723 Hardcover
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Fiction
Nowhere has the drama of American slavery played itself out
with more tension than in the dripping swamps of Maryland's
eastern shore, where abolitionists such as Frederick
Douglass and Harriet Tubman, born less than thirty miles
apart, faced off against nefarious slave traders in a
catch-me-if-you-can game that fueled fear and brought
economic hardship to both white and black families. Trapped
in the middle were the watermen, a group of America's most
original and colorful pioneers, poor oystermen who often
found themselves caught between the needs of rich plantation
owners and the roaring Chesapeake, which often claimed their
lives. The powerful web of relationships in a small Chesapeake Bay
town collapses as two souls face off in a gripping
page-turner. Liz Spocott, a young runaway who has odd dreams
about the future of the colored race, mistakenly inspires a
breakout from the prison attic of a notorious slave thief
named Patty Cannon. As Cannon stokes revenge, Liz flees into
the nefarious world of the underground railroad with its
double meanings and unspoken clues to freedom known to the
slaves of Dorchester County as "The Code." Denwood Long, a
troubled slave catcher and eastern shore waterman, is coaxed
out of retirement to break "The Code" and track down Liz. Filled with rich history-much of the story is drawn from
historical events-and told in McBride's signature lyrical
storytelling style, Song Yet Sung brings into full view a
world long misunderstood in American fiction: how slavery
worked, and the haunting, moral choices that lived beneath
the surface, pressing both whites and blacks to search for
relief in a world where both seemed to lose their moral
compass. This is a story of tragic triumph, violent
decisions, and unexpected kindness.
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