The House Girl

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A stunning debut novel intertwines the stories of an escaped house slave in 1852 Virginia and an ambitious young lawyer in contemporary New York. In Virginia, seventeen-year-old Josephine Bell decides to flee the failing tobacco farm where she serves as a slave and nurse to her ailing mistress, aspiring artist Lu Anne Bell. In New York City, Lina Sparrow, a first-year associate at an elite law firm, faces a challenging assignment: finding the "perfect plaintiff" for a historic class-action lawsuit seeking trillions in reparations for descendants of American slaves. Through her father, renowned artist Oscar Sparrow, Lina uncovers Josephine Bell's story and a controversy in the art world: are the iconic paintings attributed to Lu Anne Bell actually the work of her house slave, Josephine? A descendant of Josephine could be the ideal face for the lawsuit—if Lina can trace her lineage. As she follows the faint trail through old letters and plantation records, Lina questions her own family history and the secrets her father has long kept, including the truth about her mother's death. This searing, suspenseful tale explores the complexities of art, history, love, and the quest for justice, raising profound questions about the nature of truth and the possibility of repairing past wrongs.