Controversial since its publication, this unflinching look at Nat Turner's 1831 slave revolt in Virginia won Styron a Pulitzer Prize. What will stick with the reader is the heartbreaking insight into Turner's psychology. As penetrating a look into one man's soul as ever put to paper, the violence of slavery and the complexities of race and religion take on allegorical significance in this beautiful and disturbing book.

Chris Hodgdon