In Toni Morrison`s powerful 1977 novel, Milkman Dead hears a strange story: his father and his aunt Pilate witnessed their father`s murder, and Pilate has carried his bones around with her for 20 years. Milkman travels south to find that this grandfather (who fled slavery and escaped, creating a myth of flight) has been immortalized in folktales and songs. He and Pilate bury his bones at last; Pilate is killed; and Milkman is made free and powerful by his newfound connection to his ancestors. Winner of the 1978 National Book Critics Award.