It's 1959 in socialist Virginia. The Deep South is an independent black nation called Nova Africa. The second Mars expedition is about to touch down on the red planet and a pregnant scientist is climbing the Blue Ridge in search of her great grandfather, a teenage slave who fought with John Brown in Harriet Tubman's guerrilla army. Long unavailable in English, this bold novel tells the tale of what might have happened if John Brown's raid on Harper's ferry had succeeded - and the Civil War had been started by the abolitionists, not the slave owners.