Ta-Nehisi Coates' debut novel is coming this year.

Last year, Ta-Nehisi Coates left his position as the National Correspondent at The Atlantic. Now we know what he's been working on. On Tuesday, February 12th, the New York Times revealed the cover and title for the writer's first novel.

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The novel will be called The Water Dancer, and it will be published in September by One World, which is an imprint of Random House. According to the NY Times, the book will be set in Virginia during the 1800s. The story will be centered around a slave who nearly drowns.   

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The cover was painted by artist Calida Garcia Rawles; it features a man with his face down in water. In the NYTimes article, Coates details that he went to Rawles' studio and saw her pieces of work. He asked her if she would read the novel and then come up with a cover. She agreed. (Coates said when he saw the image he “wanted to cry.”)

Check out the cover below.

Source: NY Times