Beloved (1987) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison. The novel, her fifth, is loosely based on the life and legal case of the slave Margaret Garner, about whom Morrison later wrote in the opera Margaret Garner (2005). The book's epigraph reads: "Sixty Million and more," by which Morrison refers to the estimated number of slaves who died in the slave trade.
In this novel, Morrison paints a somber picture of the brutal effects of slavery, especially from the point of view of the characters. It examines both the mental and physical trauma caused by slavery as well as its effect on survivors. The book follows the story of Sethe (pronounced "Seth-uh") and her daughter Denver as they try to rebuild their lives after having escaped from slavery.
124 Bluestone, the house they inhabit, is apparently haunted; poltergeist events occur there with an alarming regularity. Because of this, Sethe's youngest daughter, Denver, has no friends and is extremely shy. Howard and Buglar, Sethe's sons, run away from home by the time they are thirteen. Their primary reason was the fear of being killed by their own mother. They do not understand why Sethe murdered Beloved, and believe that whatever triggered the infanticide may happen again. Shortly afterward, Baby Suggs, the mother of Sethe's husband Halle, dies in her bed.
A survey of writers and literary critics conducted by The New York Times found Beloved the best work of American fiction of the past 25 years; it garnered 15 of 125 votes, finishing ahead of Don DeLillo's Underworld (11 votes), Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian (8) and John Updike's Rabbit series (8). The results appeared in The New York Times Book Review on May 21, 2006.
Time Magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.