Richard Wright, author of Native Son and Black Boy, tells the scorching tale of Fred Daniels, a Black man who is picked up by the police, accused of a brutal double murder, and tortured until he confesses to a crime he didn’t commit. He escapes from custody and hides in the city’s sewer system, thus “the man who lived underground.”

The edition we will be reading includes for the first time the full text of the work and includes a companion essay, “Memories of My Grandmother.” Malcolm Wright, the author’s grandson, contributes an afterword.

Booklist said in a starred review, “Finally, this devastating inquiry into oppression and delusion, this timeless tour de force, emerges in full, the work Wright was most passionate about, as he explains in the profoundly illuminating essay, ‘Memories of my Grandmother,’ also published here for the first time. This blazing literary meteor should land in every collection.”