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 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 at their plantation: 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 rumors 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.

美国著名作家。为非洲黑人后裔。自小生活在贫穷的单亲家庭，是家族中唯一接受过高等教育的人。1991年以处女作《迷失在都市》，一部描写20世纪50—70年代华盛顿生活的短篇小说集。获得海明威笔会奖。入围国家图书奖。2003年出版史诗巨作《已知的世界》，荣获2004年普利策小说奖、美国图书批评家协会奖、2005年国际IMPAC都柏林文学奖，再次入围美国国家图书奖。其最新作品为2006年出版的小说集《夏甲姨妈的孩子们》。