Beloved is a Postmodern historical fiction novel about slavery, motherhood and community. 1873, it is the time just after the Civil War and the former slave Sethe lives with her 18-year old daughter Denver in 124, a haunted house on the edge of Cincinnati. The novel explores the lives of the two after they escaped from slavery. Sethe has three other children one of whom she killed when they were on the brink of being enslaved again. When the strange woman called Beloved comes to live with them, she subtly and inexplicably causes a kind of disharmony that gets worse over time until Denver asks another community for help. 

Beloved is a complex work fit for viewing the effects of slavery also after escaping slavery in the context of motherhood. The novel is suitable for interdisciplinary teaching with the subjects of History, Ethics and Social Science.

Novel · United States · 1987