The National Book Awards were announced this week and M.T. Anderson won in the category for Young People’s Literature with his book The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party. The story is set in Boston in the Revolutionary Era and follows the story of a black youth named Octavian and his mother, an African princess, who are living in a house of philosophers and educators. Although Octavian is getting a top-notch education and is living in comfortable surroundings, he realizes that he and his mother are captive in the house and are unwillingly the subjects of experiments meant to determine the intellectual capacity of Africans. After a tragic end to a pox party, Octavian escapes, only to be recaptured and forced to wear an iron mask.

If you like this book, be sure to check Feed, also by MT Anderson.