Set primarily in 1990s America, the first Ida novel follows Ida Howard, a fictional investigative journalist and human-rights documentarian shaped by the documentary courage of Ida B. Wells. Her work begins after violence, when headlines have moved on but witnesses, families, clerks, pastors, doctors, and local officials still have to decide what will enter the record. Through county files, church basements, motel rooms, fax logs, statements, corrections, and intimidation, Ida confronts racial terror and official language designed to make responsibility harder to see.
