The long dark trail

The Long Dark Trail is an epic, centuries-spanning saga of American life, covering various generations of the Allen family, from their humble origins in England to their friendship with the neighboring Green family and beyond. The two families' reactions to black emancipation could not be more different: while the Greens choose to give their land away to their former slaves, the Allens remain wedded to the past. By the middle of the twentieth century, the family patriarch Bob Allen continues to pursue his vicious hatred of people of color, even as the ground starts to shift beneath his feet. This extraordinary novel provides a soul-searching account of America's miraculous, complex history, recounting the triumphs and despairs of generations of white and black Americans joined together by slavery and its aftermath. The country's changing racial landscape is reflected in the fortunes of the book's main protagonist, Bob Allen's daughter Elizabeth, and her biracial "dream son" Jesse.