The scene is Apple Island, off New England’s coast, named after the orchard planted by the first migrant settler, Benjamin Honey. Focusing on the precarious life of the descendents, who are a mixed heritage of freedmen and Irish. Their lives are marginal, yet proud, but darkness comes with the attention of the eugenics movement and their pseudo-racial-science. Spanning time, this is polyphonic storytelling, with a quiet power, by a Pulitzer Prizewinner.