The Book of Harlan
A novel by Bernice L Mcfadden that uses The book of Harlan to explore african american families and african americans, with music in view.
Work Information
A story where african american families meets african americans.
Bernice L Mcfadden's novel The book of Harlan centers on african american families and african americans while extending into music and france.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Akashic Books
- Published
- 2016-05-03
- Pages
- 352 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 14.73 x 3.05 x 23.11 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781617754456
- ISBN-10
- 1617754455
- Price
- 10914 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/History/World/Jewish/Holocaust
Bernice L. McFadden has been named the Go On Girl! Book Club 's 2018 Author of the Year WINNER of the 2017 American Book Award WINNER of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work (Fiction) 2017 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Nominee (Fiction)! A Washington Post Notable Book of 2016 "McFadden uses the experiences of her own ancestors as loose inspiration for the life of Harlan, whom she portrays from his childhood in Harlem through imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp and his struggles afterward to put his life back together." -- Library Journal "Simply miraculous...As her saga becomes ever more spellbinding, so does the reader's astonishment at the magic she creates. This is a story about the triumph of the human spirit over bigotry, intolerance and cruelty, and at the center of The Book of Harlan is the restorative force that is music." -- Washington Post "Bernice L. McFadden took me on a melodious literary journey through time and place in her masterpiece, The Book of Harlan . It's complex, real, and raw...McFadden intricately and purposefully weaves history as a backdrop in her fiction. The Book of Harlan brilliantly explores questions about agency, purpose, freedom, and survival." -- Literary Hub , one of Nicole Dennis-Benn's 26 Books From the Last Decade that More People Should Read "McFadden's writing breaks the heart--and then heals it again. The perspective of a black man in a concentration camp is unique and harrowing and this is a riveting, worthwhile read." -- Toronto Star " The Book of Harlan is an incredible read. Bernice McFadden...has created an amazing novel that speaks to lesser known aspects of the African-American experience and illuminates the human heart and spirit. Her spare prose is rich in details that convey deep emotions and draw the reader in. This fictional narrative of Harlan Elliot's life is firmly grounded amidst real people and places--prime historical fiction, and the best book I have read this year." -- Historical Novels Review , Editors' Choice "McFadden packs a powerful punch with tight prose and short chapters that bear witness to key events in early twentieth-century history: both World Wars, the Great Depression, and the Great Migration. Partly set in the Jim Crow South, the novel succeeds in showing the prevalence of racism all across the country--whether implemented through institutionalized mechanisms or otherwise. Playing with themes of divine justice and the suffering of the righteous, McFadden presents a remarkably crisp portrait of one average man's extraordinary bravery in the face of pure evil." -- Booklist , Starred review The Book of Harlan opens with the courtship of Harlan's parents and his 1917 birth in Macon, Georgia. After his prominent minister grandfather dies, Harlan and his parents move to Harlem, where he eventually becomes a professional musician. When Harlan and his best friend, trumpeter Lizard Robbins, are invited to perform at a popular cabaret in the Parisian enclave of Montmartre--affectionately referred to as "The Harlem of Paris" by black American musicians--Harlan jumps at the opportunity, convincing Lizard to join him. But after the City of Light falls under Nazi occupation, Harlan and Lizard are thrown into Buchenwald--the notorious concentration camp in Weimar, Germany--irreparably changing the course of Harlan's life. Based on exhaustive research and told in McFadden's mesmeric prose, The Book of Harlan skillfully blends the stories of McFadden's familial ancestors with those of real and imagined characters.
Bernice L. McFadden is the author of nine critically acclaimed novels including Sugar , Loving Donovan , Nowhere Is a Place , The Warmest December , Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors' Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012), and Glorious , which was featured in O, The Oprah Magazine and was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award. She is a three-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of three awards from the BCALA. McFadden lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Reviews
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Highly recommended
This book is just amazing. I did not know that could happened during the WW2 and the trauma about memories during and after the war.
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Halfway through and loving it!
Halfway through and loving it! Make a great film...
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Five Stars
Very good
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"The Book of Harlan" - Addictive, Lyrical, Amazing
“The Book of Harlan” by Bernice L. McFadden was a book I couldn’t put down. Non-stop narrative momentum takes us from Macon to 1930s Harlem to 1940s Paris to Buchenwald to 1950s Trenton and beyond with many stops in between. Lives centered on blues and jazz elicit passages of pure poetry: “On Saturday nights, white hankie in hand, Lizard showcased his gift--blowing high notes that scraped the ceiling, notes so low people half-expected to see clefts and trebles scuttling across the floor. Happy notes, sad notes, sexy notes, deep-in-the-bone weary notes. Notes that recounted stories so primal, Lizard couldn’t have had an earthly acquaintance with them--but there they were, streaming from his trumpet like ribbons.” Harlan builds a life out of his music that takes him places, though his parents’ home in Harlem remains the heart of it all. In Harlem he meets his “brother from another mother,” Lizard, brushes shoulders with jazz greats like Louis Armstrong, drinks endlessly, smokes pot, sleeps with women, plays his guitar. In the midst of all this living there’s tragedy. In youth and in adulthood come events so shocking and sad (and so brilliantly, memory-searingly written) that I had to put the book down and take deep breaths and wait for the numbness to fade before I could resume. Fortunately, McFadden has a deft touch when it comes to injecting humor into the story, and there were countless times where I found myself grinning or chuckling. “The Book of Harlan” is a book about a life. A man and those who live in his orbit. The story of Harlan but also the story of his mother and father and friends and lovers. From the Harlem Renaissance to World War II to the Civil Rights Movement, here is the American history of a man and those who loved him. Read it.
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An eventful read
I enjoyed reading this book it kept me entertained all the way through. I did not expect a few of the turns that happened and this kept the book interesting. The ending was quite surprising also. It also includes bits of historical events as the years go by.