We’ve read of J.C. Farmer, shot to death by a posse in his mother’s yard in 1946. The official version of the altercation that led to Farmer’s murder has never sat right with me, and Hale’s searing work helps me understand my discomfort. In this award-winning work, Hale explores white supremacy, violence, (in)justice, and her own family’s role in the murder of an unarmed Black man in piney-woods Mississippi.