Hiram Walker, the son of a black woman and her white master, is born a slave nonetheless in this imaginative rendering of life in antebellum Virginia. But it is the strength of his memories that kindles a special inner gift, the magic of conduction. In the much-anticipated first novel from Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hiram’s talent is used by agents of the Underground Railroad to bring runaway slaves north, and also to help bring families whole once again. This searing and ultimately uplifting story explores the constructs of family, real or artificial, and the power of memory to bind people together from afar.