Slaves in the Family [Paperback]

Fifteen years after its hardcover debut, the FSG Classics reissue of the celebrated work of narrative nonfiction that won the National Book Award and changed the American conversation about race, with a new preface by the author

The Ball family hails from South CarolinaCharleston and thereabouts. Their plantations were among the oldest and longest-standing plantations in the South. Between 1698 and 1865, close to four thousand black people were born into slavery under the Balls or were bought by them. InSlaves in the Family,Edward Ball recounts his efforts to track down and meet the descendants of his family's slaves. Part historical narrative, part oral history, part personal story of investigation and catharsis,Slaves in the Familyis, in the words of Pat Conroy, a work of breathtaking generosity and courage, a magnificent study of the complexity and strangeness and beauty of the word family.'

Edward Ballis the author of four works of nonfiction, includingSlaves in the Family. Born and raised in the South, he attended Brown University and received his MFA from the University of Iowa before coming to New York and working as an art critic forThe Village Voice. He lives in Connecticut and teaches writing at Yale University.

Powerful. The New York Times Book Review

Gripping. The Boston Globe

Brilliant. The New Yorker

A landmark book. San Francisco Chronicle

Everyone should read and learn from this luminous book...[Slaves in the Family] is not only honest in its scrupulous reporting but also personal narrative at its finest. San Francisco Chronicle

Outside Faulkner, it will be hard to find a more poignant, powerful account of a white man struggling with his and his nation's past. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Much more than bare history...It's the human encounters, and the live, breathing juxtaposition of lc�