My Second Read from the Booker2022 list.

“Everybody talks about genocides around the world, but when the killing is slow and spread over a hundred years, no one notices. Where there are no mass graves, no one notices. American outrage is always for show. It has a shelf life.”-THE TREES

The book under the pretext of satire is a murder mystery and is a portrayal of the history of lynching and racial discrimination. The book has many racial slurs and graphic descriptions of the murders. The story starts with the murder of family members whose grandfather was involved in the lynching of Emmett Till (a real person in 1955). Emmett was a 14- year-old African American boy who was falsely accused of offending Carolyn Bryant, by Carolyn herself. He was abducted and lynched by her family members.
A grisly tale depicting many murders, elucidating vivid, gory details that is blood-curdling. Although there are funny dialogues the book per se isn’t funny. Murder after murder after murder cannot be funny. The whole book was macabre.
When the two special agents (MBI) arrived to investigate the gruesome murders, it felt like the movie ‘Bad boys’ for a few lines but then again it was back to horrific murders with mangled bodies. It is terribly disturbing.
I liked the character Granny Z who is portrayed as a 105-year- old woman who keeps a record of all the lynching that has ever happened. At 105, she is portrayed as a strong-minded person, who lives alone and is at ease with her life.
Though it’s a dark novel, it moves at a fast pace. It is not for the weak-hearted!