The Inheritance

Percival Everett meets Sinners in this gripping, haunting novel of history, rebellion, and the unpredictable nature of truth.

When antiquarian Malcolm Washington is sent to a decaying plantation home on Johns Island, South Carolina, his mission seems simple: authenticate and acquire a shackle rumored to have been used on Denmark Vesey, the legendary leader of a thwarted slave rebellion. But the assignment proves far more complicated than Malcolm could have imagined. The shackle’s owner, the enigmatic Mrs. Manigault—the last white woman on the island—is having second thoughts about selling her inheritance.

What begins as a professional assessment quickly becomes a tense battle of wits, as Mrs. Manigault insists on sharing the “story” behind the shackle, a tale she learned as a child that grows increasingly fantastical with every telling. Each piece of the story serves as both a weapon and a test, designed to manipulate, conceal, and ultimately reveal the buried truths of the past.

Caught between Mrs. Manigault’s calculated storytelling and his own complicated motivations, Malcolm is forced to confront the secrets of history—and the truths of his own past.

Sweeping, suspenseful, and sharply funny, The Inheritance blends contemporary Southern Gothic and literary mystery to explore America’s unresolved past, where the pursuit of truth uncovers secrets that are both liberating and terrifying.