The Known World is a 2003 historical novel by Edward P. Jones. It was his first novel and second book. Set in antebellum Virginia, it examines issues regarding the ownership of black slaves by free black people as well as by whites. A book with many points of view, The Known World paints an enormous canvas thick with personalities and situations that show how slavery destroys but can also be transcended.^{[neutrality is disputed]}

Awards and nominations

The novel won a National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2004.^[1][2] In 2005 it won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the literary prize with the world's largest purse.^[3]

References

1. ^ National Book Critics Circle Award past winners, Official Website
2. ^ 'The Known World' Wins Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, The New York Times
3. ^ "The Known World by Edward P. Jones wins the 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award", Official Website

Scholarship

• Tim A. Ryan, “Mapping the Unrepresentable: Slavery Fiction in the New Millennium.” Calls and Responses: The American Novel of Slavery since Gone with the Wind. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2008: 185-208.

External links

Interviews

• Edward P. Jones on 'The Known World', official HarperCollins interview.
• Interview with the author, transcript from NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, PBS, September 19, 2003
• 'The Known World', audio from National Public Radio, Morning Edition, October 28, 2003
• The Known World on Open Library at the Internet Archive

Reviews

• 'The Known World', review in Pop Matters, by Stephen M. Deusner, 5 January 2004
• 'The Known World' review in storySouth, 2005
• 'The Known World', review in The Washington Post, by Jonathan Yardley, August 24, 2003
• "People who owned people", review in The New York Times, by John Vernon, August 31, 2003
• "A transcendent story of slavery unfolds in black and white", review in The Boston Globe, by John Freeman, October 19, 2003

Misc

• Photos of the first edition of The Known World