Winner of the National Book Award! Young Octavian is being raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers -- but it is only after he opens a forbidden door that he learns the hideous nature of their experiments and his own chilling role in them. Set in Revolutionary Boston M. T. Andersons mesmerizing novel takes place at a time when Patriots battled to win liberty while African slaves were entreated to risk their lives for a freedom they would never claim. The first of two parts this deeply provocative novel reimagines the past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for readers today.