MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST 2011
WINNER OF THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE FINALIST FOR THE ROGERS WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZE
“Unforgettable... Brilliantly conceived, gorgeously executed. It's a work that promises to lead black literature in a whole new direction." —The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
“A superbly atmospheric prologue kick-starts a thrilling story about truth and betrayal... [A] brilliantly fast-moving novel." —The Times (London)
“Shines with knowledge, emotional insight, and historical revisionism... Truly extraordinary in its evocation of time and place, its shimmering jazz vernacular, its pitch-perfect male banter and its period slang." —The Independent (London)
“Imagine Mozart were a black German trumpet player and Salieri a bassist, and 18th century Vienna were WWII Paris; that's Esi Edugyan's joyful lament, Half-Blood Blues. It's conventional to liken the prose in novels about jazz to the music itself, as though there could be no higher praise. In this case, say rather that any jazz musician would be happy to play the way Edugyan writes. Her style is deceptively conversational and easy, but with the simultaneous exuberance and discipline of a true prodigy. Put this book next to Louis Armstrong's 'West End Blues'—these two works of art belong together."—Jury Citation, Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalist
About Half-Blood Blues
Berlin, 1939. The Hot-Time Swingers, a popular German and American jazz band, have been forbidden to play live because the Nazis have banned their “degenerate" music. After escaping to Paris, where they meet Louis Armstrong, the band's brilliant young trumpet-player, Hieronymous Falk, is arrested in a café by the Gestapo. It is June 1940. He is never heard from again. He is twenty years old, a German citizen. And he is black.
Berlin, 1992. Falk, now a jazz legend, is the subject of a celebratory documentary. Two of the original Hot-Time Swingers American band members, Sid Griffiths and Chip Jones, are invited to attend the film's premier in Berlin. As they return to the landscape of their past friendships, rivalries, loves, and betrayals, Sid—the only witness to Falk's disappearance who has always refused to speak about what happened—is forced to break his silence.
In an original voice that combines German and American slang, Edugyan re-creates the lost world of pre-war Berlin's smoky bars and the salons of Paris, as we learn Sid's suspenseful and vibrant story. Half-Blood Blues is a novel about music and race, love and loyalty, and marks the arrival of an extraordinarily “gifted storyteller" (Toronto Star).
About Esi Edugyan
Esi Edugyan has a masters in writing from Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Best New American Voices 2003, edited by Joyce Carol Oates, and Revival: An Anthology of Black Canadian Writing (2006). Her debut novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, was published internationally. It was nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, was a More Book Lust selection, and was chosen by the New York Public Library as one of 2004's Books to Remember. Edugyan has held fellowships in the United States, Scotland, Iceland, Germany, Hungary, Finland, Spain, and Belgium. She has taught creative writing at both Johns Hopkins University and the University of Victoria. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Half-Blood Blues
A Novel by Esi Edugyan
Picador Trade Paperback Original
978-0-250-01270-8
336 pages
Publication date: March 5, 2012
WINNER OF THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE FINALIST FOR THE ROGERS WRITERS' TRUST FICTION PRIZE
“Unforgettable... Brilliantly conceived, gorgeously executed. It's a work that promises to lead black literature in a whole new direction." —The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
“A superbly atmospheric prologue kick-starts a thrilling story about truth and betrayal... [A] brilliantly fast-moving novel." —The Times (London)
“Shines with knowledge, emotional insight, and historical revisionism... Truly extraordinary in its evocation of time and place, its shimmering jazz vernacular, its pitch-perfect male banter and its period slang." —The Independent (London)
“Imagine Mozart were a black German trumpet player and Salieri a bassist, and 18th century Vienna were WWII Paris; that's Esi Edugyan's joyful lament, Half-Blood Blues. It's conventional to liken the prose in novels about jazz to the music itself, as though there could be no higher praise. In this case, say rather that any jazz musician would be happy to play the way Edugyan writes. Her style is deceptively conversational and easy, but with the simultaneous exuberance and discipline of a true prodigy. Put this book next to Louis Armstrong's 'West End Blues'—these two works of art belong together."—Jury Citation, Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalist
About Half-Blood Blues
Berlin, 1939. The Hot-Time Swingers, a popular German and American jazz band, have been forbidden to play live because the Nazis have banned their “degenerate" music. After escaping to Paris, where they meet Louis Armstrong, the band's brilliant young trumpet-player, Hieronymous Falk, is arrested in a café by the Gestapo. It is June 1940. He is never heard from again. He is twenty years old, a German citizen. And he is black.
Berlin, 1992. Falk, now a jazz legend, is the subject of a celebratory documentary. Two of the original Hot-Time Swingers American band members, Sid Griffiths and Chip Jones, are invited to attend the film's premier in Berlin. As they return to the landscape of their past friendships, rivalries, loves, and betrayals, Sid—the only witness to Falk's disappearance who has always refused to speak about what happened—is forced to break his silence.
In an original voice that combines German and American slang, Edugyan re-creates the lost world of pre-war Berlin's smoky bars and the salons of Paris, as we learn Sid's suspenseful and vibrant story. Half-Blood Blues is a novel about music and race, love and loyalty, and marks the arrival of an extraordinarily “gifted storyteller" (Toronto Star).
About Esi Edugyan
Esi Edugyan has a masters in writing from Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Best New American Voices 2003, edited by Joyce Carol Oates, and Revival: An Anthology of Black Canadian Writing (2006). Her debut novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, was published internationally. It was nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, was a More Book Lust selection, and was chosen by the New York Public Library as one of 2004's Books to Remember. Edugyan has held fellowships in the United States, Scotland, Iceland, Germany, Hungary, Finland, Spain, and Belgium. She has taught creative writing at both Johns Hopkins University and the University of Victoria. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Half-Blood Blues
A Novel by Esi Edugyan
Picador Trade Paperback Original
978-0-250-01270-8
336 pages
Publication date: March 5, 2012
