Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award

Impeccably researched and seductively readabletells the story of Sam Sharpes revolution manqué, and the subsequent abolition of slavery in Jamaica, in a way thats acutely relevant to the racial unrest of our own time. Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Souls Rising

The final uprising of enslaved people in Jamaica started as a peaceful labor strike a few days shy of Christmas in 1831. A harsh crackdown by white militias quickly sparked a full-blown revolt, leaving hundreds of plantation houses in smoking ruins. The rebels lost their daring bid for freedom, but their headline-grabbing defiance triggered a decisive turn against slavery.

Island on Fire is a dramatic day-by-day account of these transformative events. A skillful storyteller, Tom Zoellner uses diaries, letters, and colonial records to tell the intimate story of the men and women who rose up and briefly tasted liberty. He brings to life the rebellions enigmatic leader, the preacher Samuel Sharpe, and shows how his fiery resistance turned the tide of opinion in London and hastened the end of slavery in the British Empire.

Zoellners vigorous, fast-paced account brings to life a varied gallery of participantsThe revolt failed to improve conditions for the enslaved in Jamaica, but it crucially wounded the institution of slavery itself. Fergus M. Bordewich, Wall Street Journal

Its high time that we had a book like the splendid one Tom Zoellner has written: a highly readable but carefully documented account of the greatest of all British slave rebellions, the miseries that led to it, and the momentous changes it wrought. Adam Hochschild, author of Bury the Chains

SHORLISTED FOR THE DIVERSE BOOK AWARDS
LONGLISTED FOR THE ONDAATJE PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE DIVERSE BOOK AWARDS

'Dazzling' Cosmopolitan
'I deeply admire This One Sky Day - and also, not so secretly, bitterly envy it...' MARLON JAMES
'Gorgeous' Financial Times
'Haunting' Independent
'Wonderfully fearless' New Statesman
'Stunning' KEI MILLER

Dawn breaks across the archipelago of Popisho. The world is stirring awake again, each resident with their own list of things to do:

A wedding feast to conjure and cook
An infidelity to investigate
A lost soul to set free

As the sun rises two star-crossed lovers try to find their way back to one another across this single day. When night falls, all have been given a gift, and many are no longer the same.

The sky is pink, and some wonder if it will ever be blue again.

What readers are saying
'Brimming with and life and love and just absolutely gorgeous writing. a one-of-a-kind novel.'

'I couldn't put it down and I will be recommending it to everyone.'

'A story luxuriously and confidently told, which is sumptuous from sentence to sentence. There is both literal and literary magic here.'

'This book is bursting at the seams with beauty! Magic! Love! Imagination! It is a burst of colour and flame.'

'It's hard to explain, but if you love getting lost in a story, this could be one for you.'

THE NEW YORK TIMES #1 BESTSELLER

OPRAH BOOK CLUB PICK

'One of the best books I have ever read in my entire life. I haven't felt this way since I first read Beloved . . .' Oprah Winfrey

Lose yourself in the stunning debut novel everyone is talking about - the unmissable historical story of injustice and redemption that resonates powerfully today


Hiram Walker is a man with a secret, and a war to win. A war for the right to life, to family, to freedom.

Born into bondage on a Virginia plantation, he is also born gifted with a mysterious power that he won't discover until he is almost a man, when he risks everything for a chance to escape. One fateful decision will carry him away from his makeshift plantation family and into the heart of the underground war on slavery...

'A transcendent work from a crucial political and literary artist' Diana Evans

'I've been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates' Toni Morrison