Summary and Reviews of The Known World by Edward Jones

Media Reviews

Baltimore Sun Fascinating...poignant....[A] complex and fine novel.

San Diego Union-Tribune The Known World is a great novel, one that may eventually be placed with the best of American Literature.

The New Yorker Jones has written a book of tremendous moral intricacy no relationship here is left unaltered by the bonds of ownership, and liberty eludes most of Manchester County's residents, not just its slaves.

The Washington Post - Jonathan Yardley This extraordinary novel -- the best new work of American fiction to cross my desk in years -- takes as its subject one of the most peculiar anomalies of that endlessly provocative and troubling subject In the antebellum South, where whites systematically enslaved blacks, there were free blacks who themselves owned black slaves.

Newsweek Heartbreaking....fascinating.

Speakeasy If Jones. . .keeps up this level of work, he'll equal the best fiction Toni Morrison has written about being black in America.

The New York Times - Janet Maslin With hard-won wisdom and hugely effective understatement, Mr. Jones explores the unsettling, contradiction-prone world of a Virginia slaveholder who happens to be black.

Kirkus Reviews The particulars and consequences of the right of humans to own other humans are dramatized with unprecedented ingenuity and intensity, in a harrowing tale that scarcely ever raises its voice...This will mean a great deal to a great many people. It should be a major prize contender, and it won't be forgotten.

Library Journal - Edward B St.John A fascinating look at a painful theme, this book is an ideal choice for book clubs. Highly recommended.

Publishers Weekly In a crabbed, powerful follow-up to his National Book Award-nominated short story collection (Lost in the City), Jones explores an oft-neglected chapter of American history, the world of blacks who owned blacks in the antebellum South.

 Peter Matthiessen A strong, intricate, daring book by a writer of deep compassion and uncommon gifts.