Presenting an alternative version of African American history, this novel explores what might have happened if John Brown's 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry had been successful. Chronicling life in a thriving black nation founded by Brown in the former southeastern United States, this dramatic story opens 100 years later, just as Nova Africa is poised to celebrate its first landing of a spacecraft on Mars. The prosperous black state will soon be tested when the granddaughter of John Brown returns from Africa to reunite with her daughter and share with her a secret that will alter their lives...

Winner:
2016 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award, Fiction
2016 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year, Multicultural Fiction
2017 Independent Publisher Book Award, Gold, Multicultural Fiction

Nominee:
2017 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, Debut Fiction

Uses magical realism, revolutionary politics, and romantic adventure to bring to life a colorful community of squatters in an imaginary Latin American city

Damnificados is loosely based on the real-life occupation of a half-completed skyscraper in Caracas, Venezuela, the Tower of David. In this...