Toni Morrison

In her new book, A Mercy (Knopf, 2008), Pulitzer Prize–winning author Toni Morrison mines the epic themes of race and class, love and friendship, oppression and freedom—this time through the rarely told tale of early colonists and the black slaves with whom they lived. It’s a page-turner, riveting and complex, and Morrison, ever the chain-rattler, hopes it bears bigger lessons for humanity. Empresslike with her thick, graying locks, yet given to easy, raucous laughter, the 77-year-old says there’s more in the works—a sign that after nine novels (including the acclaimed Beloved), the Nobel Prize for Literature, and tours as an editor, professor, and social critic, she’s not about to start taking final bows. … Back to Article