The Chaneysville Incident

Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction: A bitter young man searches for the truth about his father’s death and discovers the power of history in shaping our lives Brilliant but troubled historian John Washington returns to his hometown of Chaneysville, Pennsylvania—just north of the Mason-Dixon Line—to learn more about the death of his father. Washington discovers that his father was researching a mystery of his own: why thirteen escaped slaves reached freedom in Chaneysville only to die there, for reasons forgotten or never known at all. A story of personal discovery and historical revelation, The Chaneysville Incident explores the power of our pasts. Based in part on actual events, this extraordinary novel won the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award and placed David Bradley in the front ranks of contemporary American authors.