Red Clay

The granddaughter of a man born into slavery learns his story from a descendant of his enslavers in this immersive debut novel from journalist Fancher. On the morning after Felix Parker’s funeral in 1943 Alabama, his granddaughter Eileen Epps is approached by an octogenarian white woman, Addie Parker, who stuns Eileen by saying, “A lifetime ago, my family owned yours.” Fancher then rewinds to 1864, when eight-year-old Felix and his parents are enslaved on the Parker plantation in Red Clay, where their master, John Robert Parker, nine-year-old Addie’s father, entangles him in a macabre fraud. Facing catastrophic financial losses, John Robert kills himself, leaving Felix to claim two men shot him, thus ensuring his life insurance benefit will pay out to his family. After the Civil War, Felix builds a life for himself as a carpenter, and Fancher intersperses the sprawling narrative with Addie and Eileen’s present-day conversation, as Eileen informs Addie of her grandfather’s bitter memories of Addie treating him like a pet. Despite some purple prose (prayers are likened to “messages in bottles drifting on a cosmic sea”), Fancher imbues the narrative with a rich humanity as Eileen and Addie each attempt to grapple with the past. There’s plenty for historical fiction fans to admire. (Feb.)