The Known World
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The Known World
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Narrated by:
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Kevin Free
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By:
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Edward P. Jones
About this listen
Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 2004
National Book Critics Circle Award, Fiction, 2004
Henry Townsend, a black farmer, bootmaker, and former slave, has a fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor, William Robbins, perhaps the most powerful white man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester County. Under Robbins's tutelage, Henry becomes proprietor of his own plantation, as well as of his own slaves. When he dies, his widow Caldonia succumbs to profound grief; and things begin to fall apart: slaves take to escaping under the cover of night, and families who had once found love beneath the weight of slavery begin to betray one another. Beyond the Townsend estate, the known world also unravels: low-paid white patrollers stand watch as slave "speculators" sell free black people into slavery; and rumor of slave rebellions set white families against slaves who have served them for years.
An ambitious, luminously written novel that ranges seamlessly between the past and future and back again to the present, The Known World weaves together the lives of freed and enslaved blacks, whites, and Indians, and allows all of us a deeper understanding of the enduring multidimensional world created by the institution of slavery.
©2003 Edward P. Jones (P)2003 HarperCollins PublishersCritic Reviews
IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, 2005
"A masterpiece that deserves a place in the American literary canon." (Time)
"This remarkable novel, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award and short-listed for the National Book Award, deserves all the acclaim it has won and then some, especially in this flawless rendition.... Kevin Free's narration is so accomplished that when a woman character speaks, you utterly forget that she does it through a man's voice. He gives each character color, personality, and heft, without ever vamping or straining for effect. The novel bears comparison with Trollope and Faulkner, and Kevin Free's performance of it is in the same league." (AudioFile)
"A complex, often startling picture of life in the region....[Jones'] narrative achieves crushing momentum through sheer accumulation of detail, unusual historical insight, and generous character writing." (Publishers Weekly)
"Jones has written a book of tremendous moral intricacy." (The New Yorker)
What listeners say about The Known World
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tom
- 11-03-2019
wonderful, horrible
it was a fascinating story that was hard to hear from start to finish. Worth it.
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