Devil is Fine is told from the perspective of a biracial man speaking conversationally to his dead son. The narrator is struggling to process his grief over the loss of his 17-year-old son when he learns that he has inherited a large tract of property in a beachside town close to his home on the Northeast Coast of the US. The property had been bequeathed to his son from his maternal great-grandfather and on the death of his son, it passes to the narrator. The narrator did not have a good relationship with his white grandparents and his plan is to have the property surveyed and then sell it. However, in a twist of fate, human remains are found on the property – five of European descent and three of West African descent, thereby confirming that the property had been a plantation with slaves. Throughout the novel, the narrator struggles to come to terms with this complex legacy, his grief, and regret over his mistakes.

Devil is Fine is a layered, poetic, finely-crafted work of literature. It is the kind of novel that a reader should take their time reading, allowing the words to sink in and rereading some passages. I did not understand what was happening at the beginning of the novel, or even in the middle of it, but I knew I needed to be patient and it would all coalesce into something greater than the sum of its parts, and I was not disappointed. The narrator is a deeply flawed and likeable person. He is carrying the weight of his own grief, guilt and regret and history adds the additional burden from his ancestors. Combined with his health issues, medications and “fall off the wagon”, this leads to frightening visions which could be hallucinations, dreams or “haints”. It all culminates in a reckoning which finally gives him some peace.

This novel will stay with me. Thank you to Celadon for bringing me another extraordinary novel.