Under the Tulip Tree by Michelle Shocklee is a dual-timeline historical novel set primarily in 1930s Nashville, where an out-of-work reporter takes a job with the Federal Writers’ Project recording the life stories of formerly enslaved people. Through her interviews—especially with a remarkably elderly woman—she’s confronted with painful history, buried truths, and the ways injustice echoes across generations, pushing her to rethink what she believes about her community, her family, and herself.
