Nobody

Set in plantation-era, pre-Emancipation South, Neddy is the youngest son in a family of slaves when his father dies. Blaming the Master and his family, Neddy kills the Master, the Master's wife, fakes his sucide, and flees. He plans to head north to live life as a free man. Unable to come to terms with his crime, Neddy invents a new identity for every person he meets, before meeting a young girl who tries to help him get through his crisis of conscience. Turning to a tincture of morphine, and haunted, his flight from himself is an odyssey that goes from Heaven to Hell and settles somewhere near Purgatory; this is a post-modernist masterpiece, and criminally underrated, blending classical storytelling with allegory and surrealism. Written during his own struggle with substance abuse and originally published in 2007, when Mr. Nobles was 22 years old, this remains (perhaps) his greatest contribution to literature and is sure to grow in appreciation with this new release.