num_pages: 212
description: In plague-ridden eighteenth-century Philadelphia, a young itinerant black preacher searches for a mysterious, endangered African woman. His struggle to find her and save them both plummets them both into the nightmare of a society violently splitting itself into white and black. Spiraling outward from the core image of a cattle killing--the Xhosa people's ritual destruction of their herd in a vain attempt to resist European domination--the novel expands its narrator's search for meaning and love into the America, Europe and South Africa of yesterday and today.
language: English
title: The Cattle Killing
titlecomplete: The Cattle Killing
genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, African American Literature, African American
ratings_count: 149
awards: awardedAt: 852105600000
name: James Fenimore Cooper Prize
publisher: Mariner Books