Thompson doesn’t offer a tidy history—he drags Mississippi’s buried past into the light, raw and unresolved. Centering the barn where Emmett Till was tortured, he builds outward, letting that place speak for generations of violence, silence, resistance, and survival. Cotton, blood, land, legacy—it’s all here, tangled and inescapable. The brilliance lies in how he refuses to smooth the edges. There are names we should have known, stories we were never told. It’s not comfortable reading, and it shouldn’t be. A necessary book.

This book is so intensely dark and heartbreaking. Essential reading for everyone and really got me thinking about the topic in ways I haven't before. Immensely powerful.

The Barn is a thorough investigation of the murder of Emmett Till and of the land where it happened. Thompson digs deep into the history of the Mississippi Delta - the land, its people and its culture - to build up a complete contextual picture of the seeds of Southern racism and its legacy. The level of detail is at times almost overwhelming, with threads branching off in multiple directions, but there is a sold emotional core at the heart of the narrative.

Rich in reporting and first-person testimony from Till's family, The Barn is a comprehensive examination not just of one case by of a whole culture of racism that leaves a deep scar on the Delta to this day.