The Inheritance
Description
Percival Everett meets Sinners in this gripping, haunting novel of history, rebellion, and the unpredictable nature of truth
When antiquarian Malcolm Washington is sent to a decaying plantation home on Johns Island, South Carolina, his mission is simple: authenticate and acquire a shackle rumored to have been used on Denmark Vesey, the legendary leader of a thwarted slave rebellion. But the task proves far more complicated than Malcolm could have imagined. The shackle's owner, the enigmatic Mrs. Manigault-the last white woman on the island-is having second thoughts about selling her inheritance.
What begins as a professional assessment quickly spirals into a tense battle of wits, as Mrs. Manigault insists on telling the "story" behind the shackle, one she was told as a child, which grows more fantastical at every turn. Each part of the tale is both a weapon and a test, crafted to manipulate, conceal, and ultimately reveal the buried truths of the past. Trapped between Mrs. Manigault's manipulative storytelling and his own complicated motivations, Malcolm must come face-to-face with his own past.
Sweeping, suspenseful, and acidly funny, The Inheritance blends contemporary Southern Gothic and literary mystery to delve into the heart of America's unresolved past, where the search for the truth uncovers secrets both liberating and terrifying.
More details
Person
Bennett Capers has published stories in literary magazines such as Callaloo, Gettysburg Review, Fiction, and elsewhere, and his work has appeared in two anthologies of short fiction. Originally from Charleston, South Carolina, he is a professor of law at Fordham Law School and has taught at Columbia, Yale, University of Texas, and Boston University. His legal scholarship is widely published, and his op-eds have appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post. The Inheritance is his debut novel.
