Rabbit, Fox, Tar

"Verrone has an alchemical ability to take parts of the old and the new and transform them into something entirely his own … Its power doesn’t lie in its didacticism, but rather its screaming relevancy to the present state of American affairs." —The New York Times Book Review

A mesmerizing, fable-like debut novel about a mysterious young Black woman whose arrival in an insular neighborhood threatens to shake its foundations.

When Baby appears in Original Hill, the quiet community is captivated by the enigmatic young woman. Her romance with the charismatic Lucius "Lucky" Foote quickly becomes intertwined with a heated city council race against her uncle, longtime incumbent Eugene Fox, exposing deep political and racial tensions.

As protests revive memories of a destroyed Black neighborhood and divisions within the community deepen, Baby begins to question her uncle’s authority, her own past, and the mysterious forces shaping her identity.