First published 2006
Octavian lives like royalty in a grand Boston household. Dressed in fine silks and powdered wigs, he receives the best classical education money can buy. His mother Cassiopeia, an exiled princess, charms the household's scholarly residents with her intelligence and grace. The philosophers who run this strange establishment go by numbers instead of names. They conduct endless studies and experiments that puzzle young Octavian. When curiosity drives him to open a door marked forbidden, he uncovers the shocking purpose behind his privileged life. The scholars have been using him and his mother as test subjects. As Revolutionary War tensions grip Boston around them, Patriots fight for liberty while enslaved people are promised freedom they will never receive. Octavian must confront his role in experiments that strip away his humanity. Anderson places this story of betrayal and awakening against the backdrop of a nation demanding rights it denies to others.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 19th-century, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: awakening, betrayal
Setting: Boston, America
Period: Revolutionary War
368 pages · Hardcover · Candlewick Press
Content warnings: racism, slavery