The Sweetness of Water

Content warning: This book includes depictions of antigay bias, racial slurs, and racially-motivated violence.

George Walker sets out on the 200 acres passed down to him by his father to hunt a mysterious animal that has eluded him since childhood. He meets two poorly dressed young Black men in the woods. Prentiss, who George thinks is the age of his own son Caleb, steps forward and explains that they got lost in the woods. George only gets a glimpse of the second man, Landry, who does not speak and whom George thinks is simple because of his expressionless face. Even though the men are trespassing, George does not care. The men explain that they used to be enslaved by Ted Morton, whose land borders George’s.

George tells Prentiss that he is chasing a large black beast whose memory has haunted him since he and his father hunted it in his childhood. George suddenly becomes uncomfortable in the woods with the two men and tells them his wife will be calling for help. The men reveal that they have been wandering the woods for nearly a week with only a few minor provisions provided by Morton.

George entertains a rush of memories of his son Caleb, culminating in the moment he sent him off to the front lines and concluding with Caleb’s friend August coming to the house to tell him of Caleb’s death.