Ours

In the 1830s, a conjurer known only as Saint moves across Arkansas destroying plantations and freeing the people held on them. She brings the freed to a town of her own making just north of St. Louis, a haven called Ours that she hides from the world with her powers. Over four decades, Ours becomes a full community, with families and feuds, faith and grief, and residents who carry their own gifts and wounds. But Saint's magic and her memory begin to fray, and newcomers with powers of their own test the walls she built. As the cracks spread, some residents begin to wonder whether safety under Saint's control is its own form of bondage. Williams, an award-winning poet, weaves Black surrealism, mythology, and spiritual tradition into a sweeping story about the promise and the price of freedom.