The Good Lord Bird

The novel is presented as the rediscovered memoirs of Henry Shackleford, written in a colloquial and comic first-person voice. In 1856 Henry is an enslaved boy of about twelve in Kansas Territory. When his father is killed in a clash between pro-slavery and free-state forces, the abolitionist John Brown mistakes Henry for a girl, gives him a dress and nicknames him ’Little Onion’.

Henry stays with Brown through the violent years of Bleeding Kansas and eventually takes part in the raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. The book blends historical fact with invention and explores race, identity, freedom and the nature of heroism.