One of the New York Times’ Most Memorable Literary Moments of the Last 25 Years! New York Times BestsellerTIME Magazines Best Nonfiction Book of 2018New York Public Librarys Best Book of 2018NPRs Book Concierge Best Book of 2018Economist Book of the YearSELF.coms Best Books of 2018Audibles Best of the YearBookRiots Best Audio Books of 2018The Atlantics Books Briefing: History, ReconsideredAtlanta Journal Constitution, Best Southern Books 2018The Christian Science Monitors Best Books 2018

Aprofound impact on Hurstons literary legacy.New York Times

One of the greatest writers of our time.Toni Morrison

Zora Neale Hurstons genius has once again produced a Maestrapiece.Alice Walker

A major literary event: anewly published work from the author of the American classic Their Eyes Were Watching God, with aforeword from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker,brilliantly illuminates the horror and injustices of slavery as it tells the true story of one of the last-known survivors of the Atlantic slave tradeabducted from Africa on the last “Black Cargo” ship to arrive in the United States.

In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile,to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nations history. Hurston was there to record Cudjos firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States.

In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile founded by Cudjo and other former slaves from his ship. Spending more than three months there, she talked in depth with Cudjo about the details of his life. During those weeks, the young writer and the elderly formerly enslaved man ate peaches and watermelon that grew in the backyard and talked about Cudjos pastmemories from his childhood in Africa, the horrors of being captured and held in a barracoon for selection by American slavers, the harrowing experience of the Middle Passage packed with more than 100 other souls aboard the Clotilda, and the years he spent in slavery until the end of the Civil War.

Based on those interviews, featuring Cudjos unique vernacular, and written from Hurstons perspective with the compassion and singular style that have made her one of the preeminent American authors of the twentieth-century, Barracoonmasterfully illustratesthe tragedy of slavery and of one life forever defined by it. Offering insight into the pernicious legacy that continues to haunt us all, black and white, this poignant and powerful work is an invaluable contribution to our shared history and culture.