THE MAN WHO LIVED UNDERGROUND

Narrator Ethan Herisse gives a subtle heartbreaking performance in this previously unpublished novel by Richard Wright. Fred Daniels is returning home from work to his pregnant wife when he is accosted by police and tortured into a false confession. Escaping into the sewer, Daniels wanders underground in an allegorical fever dream that mirrors the state of midcentury Black America. Since the story is largely internal and surreal, Herisse gives Daniels an understated tone as he struggles to comprehend his circumstances and actions while living in the sewer. This allows the scenes in which Daniels encounters others, especially the police, to crackle with terror and confusion. Herisse returns to steady assuredness in the accompanying essay, "Memories of My Grandmother," and the afterword by Malcolm Wright, Richard's grandson. N.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2021]