First published 2008
A freight train stops in Alabama in 1931. Nine black teenagers face arrest after a fight with white boys. Two white girls step from another car, and rape accusations follow. One girl maintains her story while the other shifts her account repeatedly. A young journalist enters the case driven by her social conscience. She has no direct tie to the events but commits herself to saving the nine youths from execution. She also seeks to help the girl who begins to recant her testimony and to address her own troubled history. The case explodes across national headlines and divides communities. Racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism fuel the controversy. The journalist navigates a legal system stacked against the defendants while confronting the complexities of truth and justice. Feldman weaves real historical figures with invented characters as the story unfolds. The case becomes a symbol of American injustice that resonates worldwide.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: legal-system, social-conscience, truth-and-justice
Setting: Alabama, United States
Period: 1931
368 pages · Hardcover · PICADOR
Content warnings: racism, sexism