Night Flyer

From the National Book AwardΓÇôwinning author of All That She Carried,an intimate and revelatory reckoning with the myth and the truth behind an American everyone knows and few really understand Harriet Tubman is among the most famous Americans ever born and soon to be the face of the twenty-dollar bill. Yet often sheΓÇÖs a figure more out of myth than historyalmost a comic-book superhero. Despite being barely five feet tallunable to readand suffering from a brain injuryshe managed to escape from her own enslavementreturn again and again to lead others north to freedom without loss of lifespeak out powerfully against slaveryand then become the first American woman in history to lead a military raidfreeing some seven hundred people. You could almost say sheΓÇÖs AmericaΓÇÖs Robin Hooda miraculous visionoften rightly celebrated but seldom understood. Tiya MilesΓÇÖs extraordinary Night Flyer changes all that. With her characteristic tenderness and imaginative geniusMiles explores beyond the stock historical grid to weave TubmanΓÇÖs life into the fabric of her world. She probes the ecological reality of TubmanΓÇÖs surroundings and examines her kinship with other enslaved women who similarly passed through a spiritual wilderness and recorded those travels in profound and moving memoirs. What emergesuncannilyis a human being whose mysticism becomes more palpable the more we understand itΓÇöa story that offers us powerful inspiration for our own time of troubles. Harriet Tubman traversed many boundariesinner and outer. Nowthanks to Tiya Milesshe becomes an even clearer and sharper signal from the pastone that can help us to echolocate a more just and sustainable path.