"47" by Walter Mosley

Don't be fooled. This incredible book is not a simple historical account of a slave boy living on a southern plantation where everyone is known by a number. It's so much more, and it's actually science fiction.

Forty-seven is a young slave with a cruel master and the prospect of a tortured, harsh life picking cotton 14 hours a day, 365 days a year. One day, a mysterious runaway slave runs into Forty-seven (literally) on a path,

"When our eyes met the boy seemed to be looking for something inside me. He peered closer, frowning and straining as if he saw something familiar. Then he broke out into a broad grin. He walked up to me, put out a helping hand, and pulled me to my feet.

"There you are at last," he said as if we were playmates just come to the end of a game of hide-and-seek. "I've been looking high and low for you."

Tall John has been looking for Forty-seven for 3,000 years. He brings to him the idea of freedom and equality, and the idea that a fourteen-year-old young man in bondage is the person who can save the universe. The author, Walter Mosley, promises that "47" is the first in a long series. I can't wait until the next one comes out. In the meantime, here's a podcast of an interview with Mosley about this book.