Natural disasters, cold-blooded murders, political agitation - all haunt these dark, dramatic novellas set in an American Deep South still corrupted by its slave-owning past.

But at the heart of each are the stories of the men, women and children whose resistance against oppression will come to define their lives. Originally published in 1938, Uncle Tom's Children was Richard Wright's first published work.

It would establish his reputation as both a powerful storyteller and a fierce chronicler of racism, violence and oppression in America at the time.