Unbound: A Story of Bondage, Beauty and Defiance in Reconstruction Louisiana (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798180998514)

A Reconstruction-era novel that fuses blistering historical truth with unforgettable fiction.

The war was over, but the chains weren't.

Set in 1866 in the turbulent aftermath of the Civil War, UNBOUND immerses readers in the raw, volatile reality of Reconstruction Louisiana. It follows four unforgettable characters navigating the wreckage of slavery and the false dawn of freedom: Julia Rose Till, the daughter of her mother's master; her husband, Joseph, a formerly enslaved man who is grappling in fear with his newfound freedom in a system built to deny him of it; Jeremy Twomey; the son of a former enslaver who, despite being haunted by his past, returns to his ruined plantation for a reckoning; and socialite Charmagne Boudreaux who arrives from France, determined to dismantle the South's broken machinery.

As a cabal plots racial terror from an abandoned plantation estate, leaving secret etchings on an oak table to track their terrorist trophies, and lawmakers rebuild slavery under new names, these lives collide in an epic story of pain, perseverance and defiance. Told in four voices that ache, defy, and remember, UNBOUND is a Southern gothic novel that asks: what is the price to build anything when the system keeps burning everything?

This debut novel blends historical truth with lyrical fiction in the tradition of Beloved, The Nickel Boys, and The Prophets and explores generational trauma, power, and survival in a fractured America.

Author: Valencia M. Martin
ISBN-13: 9798180998514
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 06/19/2026
Pages: 576
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.68lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.28d