Ta-Nehisi Coats

"Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage-- and lost his mother and all memory of her when he was a child-- but he is also gifted with a mysterious power. Hiram almost drowns when he crashes a carriage into a river, but is saved from the depths by a force he doesn't understand, a blue light that lifts him up and lands him a mile away. This strange brush with death forces a new urgency on Hiram's private rebellion. Spurred on by his improvised plantation...