The Chaneysville Incident - David Bradley

John Washington, professor of history, is drawn back to his small town when he hears that his friend and mentor old Jack Crawley is dying.
Jack Crawley had always been a storyteller. Before he dies, he tells John one last story, and leaves him a strange bequest that sets John on a search for the truth about his father ? a man who began as a maker of illegal whiskey and ended as the wealthiest and most influential black member of the community.
As John unravels his family history, he discovers a tale of intrigue leading back to slavery days.
The Chaneysville Incident ? winner of the PEN/Faulkner award as the best American novel of 1981 ? stuns like a thriller and awes like an epic. Quite simply one of the major novels of the decade.