by C. E. Morgan
First published 2017
Henry Forge grows up under his landowner father's harsh judgment on their Kentucky horse farm, where the family's fortune rests on breeding racehorses. The farm employs Allmon Shaughnessy, a young black man from the ghetto who tends the horses while searching for answers about his past. Among the household staff works a brilliant black woman trapped by circumstances into servitude despite her intelligence. Henry's daughter inherits both the family's racing legacy and its burdens, willing to risk everything to preserve what her ancestors built. As these lives intersect across the years, the Kentucky land witnesses their struggles with heritage, race, and destiny. The horses they breed and race become symbols of their own quests for freedom and identity, while the farm itself holds secrets that span generations.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-secrets, found-family, social-commentary
Setting: Kentucky
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
560 pages · Paperback · Picador
Content warnings: racism, slavery