In antebellum Louisiana, the acerbic main character of Martin’s short novel, a Creole woman named Manon Gaudet, hates her life. She despises her husband, who has fathered two children by her house slave, Sarah. She despises Sarah too, who also abhors the husband but who seems to Manon to take advantage of her favored position in the household. She can’t stand the tedium of plantation life. She is whiny, self-absorbed, with few redeeming characteristics, and yet she is fascinating.

Manon despairs of her life ever getting better and constantly rues the choices she has made. Then a slave insurrection does change everything – and yet it changes none of the essential facts of the time and culture Manon lives in.

Property is about the plight of people who are property: literally, in the case of Sarah, and metaphorically, in the case of Manon, who is owned by her husband. The writing is simple and precise; the story is both horrifying and enthralling. This is a unique glimpse into what is now an alien practice: slave-holding.