"Sugar" offers a compelling and surprising look at the sweet commodity, from the ways in which it Africanized the cane fields of the Caribbean to how it fueled the Industrial Revolution and jump-started the fast-food craze.

"Drunken Bride, Texas, April 1875. Writing furiously in a jail cell in the days leading up to his hanging, former slave Persimmon "Persy" Wilson's last wish is to set the record straight. He may be guilty, but not of what he stands accused: the kidnapping and rape of his master's wife. Fifteen years earlier, Persy had been sold to Sweetmore, a Louisiana sugar plantation, alongside a striking young house slave named Chloe. Persy and Chloe arrive bound...