With its unflinching excavation of our dark past,American Nightmareis a page turner with a message.Tayari Jones,New York Timesbestselling author ofKin

Clark Wendell White first encountered the Nightmare as a child during the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906, when he and his father stood guard over their family home. In the eyes of the mob surging through his neighborhood, Clark sensed this malevolent presence. It was then that the Nightmare took shape, burrowing deep into his mind and feeding on his fear.

Years later, the same evil presence drives Clark to the NAACPs headquarters in New York City, where he answers an ad seeking light-skinned Black men for dangerous undercover work. As a spy for the NAACP, Clark investigates lynchings, impersonating the very Nightmare that once tormented him.

As Clark descends deeper into this double life, another force rises: a new chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, finding a foothold in the storied streets of New York City. Among its eager recruits is Sam Cahillthe one man who can see pasthisdisguise. Now Clark must outwit both the living and the dead, as he confronts a past that refuses to stay buried and a future where the act of passing exacts a soul-deep price.

Inspired by the life of civil rights activist Walter White, who passed as a white man to expose the brutality of lynchings from the South to the Midwest,American Nightmareis a gripping historical thriller that reveals the most terrifying monsters arent those that go bump in the night but those that walk among us.

Kelly McWilliamsis a mixed-race novelist whose work examines white passing, American history, and the uncanny. She is also the author of several acclaimed novels for young adults, includingMirror Girls, a Junior Library Guild Selection.American Nightmareis her adult fiction debut. She lives in Seattle with her family.

• Publisher: Crown
• Publish Date: September 15, 2026
• Pages: 304
• Language: English
• Type: Hardcover
• EAN/UPC: 9798217087204
• Dimensions: 9.3 X 6.1 X 0.8 inches | 1.06 pounds
• BISAC Categories: Popular Fiction, Historical Fiction, Horror