Charleston, South Carolina, 1840s.
Abigail's world is one of polished manners and whispered secrets-where the fragrance of magnolia masks the darker truths rooted deep in the South's soil. When an invitation to a lavish Monster's Ball sets in motion a chain of events she can't explain, Abigail is drawn into a night of spectral encounters, haunting revelations, and a shattering truth about her own life and death.
But Abigail's story is only the beginning.
From the unbreakable will of Nzinga, stolen from West Africa and determined to protect her daughter at any cost, to the tender defiance of Silas, caught between love and the unyielding rules of his world, the threads of generations intertwine. Across decades and lifetimes, love, sacrifice, and resilience blaze through the darkness-binding the living and the dead in a fight for freedom, dignity, and truth.
Steeped in Southern history and laced with the supernatural, Abigail is a sweeping, multi-generational saga of courage and connection. It is a story of those who refuse to be forgotten... and of the ties that death itself cannot sever.
For readers who love:
The haunting beauty of Beloved by Toni Morrison
The historical depth of The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
The spectral atmosphere of The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield