The Good Lord Bird (National Book Award Winner): A Novel

Soon to be a Showtime limited series starring Ethan Hawke

Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction

A Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Oprah Magazine Top 10 Book of the Year

From the bestselling author of The Color of Water, Song Yet Sung, Five-Carat Soul, and Kill 'Em and Leave, a James Brown biography, comes the story of a young boy born a slave who joins John Brown€s antislavery crusade€"and who must pass as a girl to survive.

Henry Shackleford is a young slave living in the Kansas Territory in 1857, when the region is a battleground between anti- and pro-slavery forces. When John Brown, the legendary abolitionist, arrives in the area, an argument between Brown and Henry€s master quickly turns violent. Henry is forced to leave town€"with Brown, who believes he€s a girl.

Over the ensuing months, Henry€"whom Brown nicknames Little Onion€"conceals his true identity as he struggles to stay alive. Eventually Little Onion finds himself with Brown at the historic raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859€"one of the great catalysts for the Civil War.

An absorbing mixture of history and imagination, and told with McBride€s meticulous eye for detail and character, The Good Lord Bird is both a rousing adventure and a moving exploration of identity and survival.