"It opens in the year 1834 as a Black woman with magical powers named Saint founds a small settlement north of St. Louis with some slaves she has liberated, making the town invisible to the outside world by placing conjure stones around its perimeter; as the inhabitants of the town discover, however, Saint has provided them safety but not necessarily freedom. As the next four decades pass, more characters enter the novel, including two young boys who come of age in the settlement, a troubled young woman from New Orleans, a person of indeterminate sexuality who has the power to heal wounds and see what people have been through, and a set of twin girls that mysteriously appear in Saint's arms one day, one of whom also has healing powers. As Saint's conjuring powers begin to decline, and threats from the outside loom, life becomes increasingly strange in the town; each character strives in their own way to reckon with the weight of their past as they attempt to achieve a fuller self, deal with their trauma, anger, and fear, and navigate freedom for themselves."-- ...
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