Bloodroot

the long version

"Aaron Roy Even's startling, imagistic novel takes its cue from a true event: in 1936, in a small town near Charlottesville, Virginia, an aging black caretaker and his sister shot dead a white sheriff acting on orders to turn them off their land.". "In Bloodroot, Even explores the circumstances leading up to this violent standoff and the tragedy that followed, as seen through the eyes of Elsa, a young white county employee fresh out of school and filled with aspiration and illusion, and those of Wesley, the aging black caretaker of a vanished family's estate."--BOOK JACKET.