From the New York Times bestselling author of House of Eveâa 2023 Reeseâs Book Club Pick!
*A Best Book of the Year by NPR and Christian Science Monitor*
Called âwholly engrossingâ by New York Times bestselling author Kathleen Grissom, this âfully immersiveâ (Lisa Wingate, #1 bestselling author of Before We Were Yours) story follows an enslaved woman forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Virginia.
Born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia, Pheby Delores Brown has lived a relatively sheltered life. Shielded by her motherâs position as the estateâs medicine woman and cherished by the Masterâs sister, she is set apart from the others on the plantation, belonging to neither world.
Sheâd been promised freedom on her eighteenth birthday, but instead of the idyllic life she imagined with her true love, Essex Henry, Pheby is forced to leave the only home she has ever known. She unexpectedly finds herself thrust into the bowels of slavery at the infamous Devilâs Half Acre, a jail in Richmond, Virginia, where the enslaved are broken, tortured, and sold every day. There, Pheby is exposed not just to her Jailerâs cruelty but also to his contradictions. To survive, Pheby will have to outwit him, and she soon faces the ultimate sacrifice.