Editions

The Longest Memory

The Longest Memory

Written in taut, poetic language, THE LONGEST MEMORY is set on a Virginian plantation in the 19th century, and tells the tragic story of a rebellious, fiercely intelligent young slave who breaks all the rules: in learning to read and write, in falling in love with a white girl, the daughter of his owner, and, finally, in trying to escape and join her in the free North. For his attempt to flee, he is whipped to death in front of his family, and this brutal event is the pivot around which the story evolves.

Reviews

  • A haunting novel whose brevity and directness belie the depths of tragedy it plumbs.

    Aida Edemariam, The Guardian (London)

  • D'Aguiar marks his accomplished arrival as a novelist with this compelling and compassionate work

    Sean Coughlan, The Times

  • A short book that speaks volumes about slavery... Keeping his page taut with compression and compassion, D'Aguiar makes The Longest Memory hard to forget

    Peter Kemp, Sunday Times

  • This deceptively simple book resonates long after it is finished

    Paula Burnett, New Statesman and Society

More from this Author

About the Author

Fred D'aguiar

Fred D'Aguiar is a poet and novelist. Born in 1960, he was raised in Guyana and London. He is currently Professor of English and Gloria D. Smith Professor of Africana Studies at Virginia Tech State University. His first novel, The Longest Memory, won the 1994 Whitbread First Novel Award.

Fred D'aguiar

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