In Darnell’s world, a curious event called “The Return” has occurred, and select historical figures are back among the living in the 21st century. Cleopatra is an Instagram model. John D. Rockefeller and Jeff Bezos publicly battle over who is wealthier. And Harriet Tubman wants to record an album. Why they have returned isn’t addressed, but these figures are fully integrated into modern society while continuing to dress in the style of their original time period. Naturally, they attract a fair amount of attention.

Darnell is gobsmacked when Tubman contacts him to help create a blend of hip-hop and traditional spirituals that will “bridge the gap between you and yo ancestors.” But Darnell’s musical prowess isn’t the only reason Tubman selected him. Darnell gave up his career after he was shamed on “Smooth Live” and has faded into obscurity. Tubman tells Darnell that she’s “in the business of taking people to freedom and you still ain’t free from something.” By the time she’s done recording the album, she proclaims, she will have delivered him from his self-inflicted oppression.

Tubman is a no-nonsense, results-driven person who is unwavering in her objective to set her life story to music. Tiny in stature, Tubman “does not look like she has had an easy life,” Darnell observes. “But at the same time, she truly looks like she is conquering it.”

Helping her free Darnell from his shame are the members of her four-piece ensemble, the Freemans. Also Returned figures, they teach Darnell about Tubman’s history as they reveal how she helped each of them find freedom.

Odessa is a pretty singer who looks “like she has never done a hard day’s work in her life.” But in 1863, Odessa and 700 other enslaved people were liberated by Tubman and Union troops in the Combahee Ferry Raid. That mission solidified Tubman as the first woman to lead a major military operation in the United States.

Over a meal of soul food, Odessa tells Darnell about her time as a house slave and reveals how difficult it was for her to embrace the concept of being free. Through their conversation, he realizes the shame he has been shrouded in since he was betrayed on “Smooth Live” has more to do with him than anyone else.

Tubman’s soft-spoken brother Moses is the band’s drummer who teaches Darnell Harriet’s personal story. After escaping slavery, Tubman made 13 trips back to Dorchester County, Maryland, to free her family and rescue more than 70 enslaved people via the Underground Railroad.

But Tubman was also the survivor of traumatic brain injury and would famously pass out on rescue missions for extended time periods. Although Tubman said she used these episodes to talk with God and felt perfectly safe, Moses said they were terrifying for those around her.

Moses conveys this information to Darnell while Tubman is unconscious on the floor between them. Although they are safely ensconced in a 21st-century Harlem studio, Darnell is so immersed in the telling that he can sense those 19th century dangers with a palpable intimacy.

Bob the Drag Queen softens his disturbing subject matter — the horrors of slavery — with humor through his supporting characters. DJ Quakes is a four-foot-tall Quaker inspired by Benjamin Lay, the historical Quaker abolitionist who was ostracized from Philadelphia’s Quaker community for his antislavery activism.

He chips away at Darnell’s sense of estrangement from the hip-hop world as they discuss the concept of respect. After their visit to a record store where Darnell is reminded of his past success, he begins to shed his shame.

Buck is the fourth and final member of the Freemans, the guitar player who helps bridge the religious divide between Tubman, a devout Christian, and Darnell, a nonbeliever.

Tubman remains an elusive figure throughout the narrative, more focused on recording her album than anything else, but her fellow Returned comrades provide unique insight into her history to tell a different kind of Harriet Tubman story.

Educational and entertaining, “Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert” is an inventive mashup of fact and fantasy that tells a fresh story about a historical figure.

For a sample of Harriet Tubman’s record, Bob the Drag Queen has posted a new song, “Queen of the Underground,” on his YouTube channel. The track is a luscious blend of hip-hop and spirituals that, much like the novel, brings a 21st century heartbeat to the famed freedom fighter’s life.

FICTION

“Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert”

by Bob the Drag Queen

Gallery Books

240 pages, $27.99

AUTHOR EVENT

Bob the Drag Queen. Book Discussion and Signing. 7 p.m., March 28. $28.70 Hosted by 44th & 3rd Bookseller at Auburn Avenue Research Library, 101 Auburn Ave. NE, Atlanta. 404-613-4001, www.eventbrite.com