About this item
A sweeping, eerily resonant epic of race and violence in the Jim Crow South: a lyrical and emotionally devastating masterpiece from Charlie Smith, whom the New York Public Library has said "may be America's most bewitching stylist alive."Delvin Walker is just a boy when his mother flees their home in the Red Row section of Chattanooga, accused of killing a white man. Taken in by Cornelius Oliver, proprietor of the town's leading Negro funeral home, he discovers the art of caring for the aggrieved, the promise of transcendence in the written word, and a rare peace in a hostile world. Yet tragedy visits them near daily, and after a series of devastating events - a lynching, a church burning - Delvin fears being accused of murdering a local white boy and leaves town.
About the Author
Charlie Smith, the author of seven novels and seven books of poetry, has won numerous awards, grants, and fellowships, including the Aga Khan Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, the Paris Review, Harper's, the New Republic, the New York Times, The Nation, and many other magazine and journals. He taught at Princeton University and was a Coal Royalty Chair holder at the University of Alabama. Three of his novels have been named New York Times Notable Books. His last novel, Three Delays, was a New York Times Editor's Choice. He lives in New York City.
