American Renaissance

Light-skinned black woman Irene Redfield meets an old childhood friend - Claire - who is now "passing" as a white woman... Claire is married to a racist white man, who doesn't know she has African American blood. Despite the danger of being found out by her husband and society at large she finds herself helplessly drawn to Irene's world. An absolutely fascinating listening experience on many levels simultaneously.

Adam’s Belle” is the memoir of the late Isabel Washington Powell -Cotton Club dancer and movie star in the 1920’s, political activist and “Queen of Harlem” in the 1930’s and 40’s, and the first wife of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. It is an exceptional story of the Harlem Renaissance and the early life of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. as the Pastor of the largest African-American church in the U.S. at the time – Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem , his early civil rights battles, his time as a member of the New York City Council and later running for Congress. Told by the woman who ...

Jean Toomer’s Cane (1923) is regarded by many as a seminal work in the history of African American writing. It is generally called a novel, but it could more accurately be described as a collection of short stories, poems and dramatic pieces whose stylistic indeterminacy is part of its unique appeal. The ambiguities and seeming oddities of Toomer’s text make Cane a difficult work to understand, which is why this lucid, accessible guide is so valuable. Exploring some of the difficulties that both the writer and his work embody, Gerry Carlin offers an enthralling account of Toomer’s ...

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Richard Brautigan was a counter-cultural celebrity, a writer that the would-be hip just had to read. The problem was that his fame did not rest on the considerable literary virtues of his work but, to a great extent, on a mediated image of cool hippie/rock star exemplified by the photograph of him on the cover of his breakthrough novel, Trout Fishing in America. When nobody wanted tie-dye shirts and gurus any more, they didn’t want Brautigan either. Academics have followed the public’s lead: this is the first book-length study of Brautigan in English ...

A young military couple from Indiana is separated by a deployment and haunted by secrets. Shamar Jackson, a sergeant in the US Army, struggles to maintain a long-distance relationship, while his wife, Jelisa, fights to escape the past she never told him about. Lies and deceit stand to ruin this young couple's family, but will the truth make things better or worse? Still tied to the streets, Shamar is determined to keep his family intact by any means necessary. After returning home from war, he is now faced with the fact that the battlefield has been at home the whole time.

Poet Jean Toomer’s short-story and poetry collection.

When the body of N’Gana Frimbo, the African conjure-man, is discovered in his consultation room, Perry Dart, one of Harlem’s 10 Black police detectives, is called in to investigate. Together with Dr Archer, a physician from across the street, Dart is determined to solve the baffling mystery, helped and hindered by Bubber Brown and Jinx Jenkins, local boys keen to clear themselves of suspicion of murder and undertake their own investigations.

À la fois roman historique et thriller, 1542: La colonie maudite s’inspire d’un fait réel aussi fascinant que méconnu : l’expédition Cartier-Roberval. Bien qu’aux prises avec la montée des troubles religieux en France, François 1er doit assurer son emprise en Amérique. Il ordonne donc à Jacques Cartier et au Sieur de Roberval d’aller fonder une colonie en Nouvelle-France. Un étonnant amalgame de catholiques et de protestants, ainsi que de repris de justice et d’aristocrates, s’embarque alors pour une formidable épopée.

When writer John Chapter is found dead, it's the words he didn't write that might hold the key. In the heart of the roaring twenties, Harlem is a nexus of intellectual verve and literary prowess. Esteemed writers hold court at elegant soirées, critics debate the merits of the newest works, and ambition is the lifeblood of every aspiring novelist and poet. But as autumn casts its golden-red spell over the city, Harlem murmurs with mysteries that remain unseen beneath its vibrant surface. Lanie Price, a society reporter with unparalleled access to Harlem's elite, is accustomed to uncovering ...