About the Book

The hero of Mdas "Ways of Dying," Toloki, settles down with a family in middle America and uncovers the story of the runaway slaves who had been their ancestors. Their stories alternate with Tolokis, and the two narratives cast new light on an undiscovered legacy of the Underground Railroad.

Book Synopsis

A Picador Paperback Original

The hero of Zakes Mda's beloved Ways of Dying, Toloki, sets down with a family in Middle America and uncovers the story of the runaway slaves who were their ancestors.

Toloki, the professional mourner, has come to live in America. Lured to Athens, Ohio, by an academic at the local university, Toloki makes friends with an angry young man he meets at a Halloween parade and soon falls in love with the young man's sister. Toloki endears himself to a local quilting group and his quilting provides a portal to the past, a story of two escaped slaves seeking freedom in Ohio.

Making their way north from Virginia with nothing but their mother's quilts for a map, the boys hope to find a promised land where blacks can live as free men. Their story alternates with Toloki's, as the two narratives cast a new light on America in the twenty-first century and on an undiscovered legacy of the Underground Railroad.

Review Quotes

"A marvelous picaresque." --The New York Times Book Review on Ways of Dying

"Darkly comic and sadly poignant, Mda possesses the lyricism of a storyteller." --San Diego Union-Tribune on Ways of Dying

About the Author

Zakes Mda is a professor of creative writing at Ohio University. He lives in Athens, Ohio.