num_pages: 448
description: Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award " The Chaneysville Incident  rivals Toni Morrison's  Song of Solomon  as the best novel about the black experience in America since Ellison's  Invisible Man ." —  Christian Science Monitor The legends say something happened in Chaneysville.  The Chaneysville Incident  is the powerful story of one man's obsession with discovering what that something was a quest that takes the brilliant and bitter young Black historian John Washington back through the secrets and buried evil of his heritage. Returning home to care for and then bury his father's closest friend and his own guardian, Old Jack Crawley, John comes upon the scant records of his family's proud and tragic history, which he drives himself to reconstruct and accept. This is the story of John's relationship with his family, the town, and the woman he loves; and also between the past and the present, between oppression and guilt, hate and violence, love and acceptance.
language: English
title: The Chaneysville Incident
titlecomplete: The Chaneysville Incident
genres: American, Historical Fiction, Historical, Literary Fiction, Literature, Race, African American, Mystery, Classics, Fiction
ratings_count: 1160
places: The United States of America
awards: awardedAt: 378720000000
name: PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, awardedAt: 410256000000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Fiction (Paperback)
publisher: Harper Perennial