John Crow's Devil

"I'm an LA native with a lot of love for LA crime fiction, but instead of preaching to the noir choir about The Long Goodbye , I'd like to gush about Southland by Nina Revoyr. It's a brilliant, ambitious, moving literary crime novel about two families in South Los Angeles and their tangled history between the 1930s and the 1990s. The central mystery is the death of four black boys in a Japanese-American man's store during the Watts Rebellion of 1965. It's a powerful book, one that I think about often, as well as a huge influence on my work. Right up there with Chandler." -- Stephanie Cha (of the LARB ) in GQ on "The Greatest Crime Novelists on Their Favorite Crime Novels Ever" "A story about injustice dressed up as a detective novel, Southland reminds us that activism is both an ongoing project and a deeply personal choice." -- Vallaire Wallace in Electric Lit on "The Novel That Shows Us How to Face our Past to Change Our Future" "Jackie Ishida's grandfather had a store in Watts where four boys were killed during the riots in 1965, a mystery she attempts to solve." -- New York Times Book Review , Ross MacDonald on "Where Noir Lives in the City of Angels" "It is the kind of saga that often epitomizes and shocks LA--friction and violence between races and cultures." -- Los Angeles Times , named one of the 20 Essential LA Crime Books "When I started working on Your House Will Pay , I hoped to write something that was half as smart and affecting as Southland . Revoyr's novel takes place in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles, following two families--one black, one Japanese--over several decades. It's a character-driven saga with the engine of a crime novel, unravelling a horrific multiple murder that took place in the chaotic days of the Watts Rebellion in 1965." -- The Guardian (UK), one of Steph Cha's Top 10 Books About Trouble in Los Angeles "[A]n absolutely compelling story of family and racial tragedy. Revoyr's novel is honest in detailing southern California's brutal history, and honorable in showing how families survived with love and tenacity and dignity." -- Susan Straight, author of Highwire Moon Southland brings us a fascinating story of race, love, murder and history, against the backdrop of an ever-changing Los Angeles. A young Japanese-American woman, Jackie Ishida, is in her last semester of law school when her grandfather, Frank Sakai, dies unexpectedly. While trying to fulfill a request from his will, Jackie discovers that four African-American boys were killed in the store Frank owned during the Watts Riots of 1965. Along with James Lanier, a cousin of one of the victims, Jackie tries to piece together the story of the boys' deaths. In the process, she unearths the long-held secrets of her family's history. Southland depicts a young woman in the process of learning that her own history has bestowed upon her a deep obligation to be engaged in the larger world. And in Frank Sakai and his African-American friends, it presents characters who find significant common ground in their struggles, but who also engage each other across grounds--historical and cultural--that are still very much in dispute. Moving in and out of the past--from the internment camps of World War II, to the barley fields of the Crenshaw District in the 1930s, to the streets of Watts in the 1960s, to the night spots and garment factories of the 1990s-- Southland weaves a tale of Los Angeles in all of its faces and forms. The incredible debut novel from 2015 Man Booker Prize winner Marlon James Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize "A powerful first novel...Writing with assurance and control, James uses his small-town drama to suggest the larger anguish of a postcolonial society struggling for its own identity." --New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice "A Brief History of Seven Killings might have won the Booker, and Black Leopard, Red Wolf might be the next Game of Thrones, but if you're looking for an entry point into the much-lauded, highly raucous mind of Marlon James, his 2005 debut could actually be the place to start: it's just as powerful and intricately written as James's later works, but it's quite a bit shorter, and easier to carry around with you everywhere you go, something you will surely want to do." --Literary Hub, 10 Debut Novels Nobody Reads Anymore--But Should "Elements coalesce in a Jamaican stew spicier than jerk chicken. First novelist James moves effortlessly between lyrical patois and trenchant observations...It's 150-proof literary rum guaranteed to intoxicate and enchant. Highly recommended." --Library Journal, Starred review "Set in James's native Jamaica, this dynamic, vernacular debut sings of the fierce battle between two flawed preachers...an exciting read." --Publishers Weekly "A mesmerizing treatise on the nature of good and evil, faith and madness, guilt and forgiveness, eloquently captured in a microcosm of society." --Booklist "John Crow's Devil engages the political legacy of Frantz Fanon without sacrificing the power of fiction...There's a temptation to compare John Crow's Devil to novels by Toni Morrison or Earl Lovelace, among others, and there are certainly similarities to those works in this one. There is even an echo of Faulkner in the meticulous, multi-vocal rendering of conflicts entrenched in village life. But more important than any comparison is that James' debut is very much its own book, and stands as tall on its own as it would with any other volume beside it." --Small Spiral Notebook This stunning debut novel tells the story of a biblical struggle in a remote Jamaican village in 1957. With language as taut as classic works by Cormac McCarthy, and a richness reminiscent of early Toni Morrison, Marlon James reveals his unique narrative command that will firmly establish his place as one of today's freshest, most talented young writers. In the village of Gibbeah--where certain women fly and certain men protect secrets with their lives--magic coexists with religion, and good and evil are never as they seem. In this town, a battle is fought between two men of God. The story begins when a drunkard named Hector Bligh (the "Rum Preacher") is dragged from his pulpit by a man calling himself "Apostle" York. Handsome and brash, York demands a fire-and-brimstone church, but sets in motion a phenomenal and deadly struggle for the soul of Gibbeah itself. John Crow's Devil is a novel about religious mania, redemption, sexual obsession, and the eternal struggle inside all of us between the righteous and the wicked.

"[A]n absolutely compelling story of family and racial tragedy. Revoyr’s novel is honest in detailing southern California’s brutal history, and honorable in showing how families survived with love and tenacity and dignity."—Susan Straight, author of Highwire Moon

Southland brings us a fascinating story of race, love, murder and history, against the backdrop of an ever-changing Los Angeles. A young Japanese-American woman, Jackie Ishida, is in her last semester of law school when her grandfather, Frank Sakai, dies unexpectedly. While trying to fulfill a request from his will, Jackie discovers that four African-American boys were killed in the store Frank owned during the Watts Riots of 1965. Along with James Lanier, a cousin of one of the victims, Jackie tries to piece together the story of the boys’ deaths. In the process, she unearths the long-held secrets of her family’s history.

Southland depicts a young woman in the process of learning that her own history has bestowed upon her a deep obligation to be engaged in the larger world. And in Frank Sakai and his African-American friends, it presents characters who find significant common ground in their struggles, but who also engage each other across grounds—historical and cultural—that are still very much in dispute.

Moving in and out of the past—from the internment camps of World War II, to the barley fields of the Crenshaw District in the 1930s, to the streets of Watts in the 1960s, to the night spots and garment factories of the 1990s—Southland weaves a tale of Los Angeles in all of its faces and forms.

Nina Revoyr is the author of The Necessary Hunger ("Irresistible."—Time Magazine). She was born in Japan, raised in Tokyo and Los Angeles, and is of Japanese and Polish-American descent. She lives and works in Los -Angeles.

The long-awaited paperback reissue of Booker–Prize Winner Marlon James's debut novel. —Marlon James won the 2015 Man Booker Prize for his third novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings. —Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize "A powerful first novel . . . Writing with assurance and control, James uses his small-town drama to suggest the larger anguish of a postcolonial society struggling for its own identity." —New York Times, Editors' Choice "Elements coalesce in a Jamaican stew spicier than jerk chicken. First novelist James moves effortlessly between lyrical patois and trenchant observations . . . It's 150-proof literary rum guaranteed to intoxicate and enchant. Highly recommended." —Library Journal, Starred Review This stunning debut novel tells the story of a biblical struggle in a remote Jamaican village in 1957. With language as taut as classic works by Cormac McCarthy, and a richness reminiscent of early Toni Morrison, Marlon James reveals his unique narrative command that will firmly establish his place as one of today's freshest, most talented young writers. In the village of Gibbeah—where certain women fly and certain men protect secrets with their lives—magic coexists with religion, and good and evil are never as they seem. In this town, a battle is fought between two men of God. The story begins when a drunkard named Hector Bligh (the "Rum Preacher") is dragged from his pulpit by a man calling himself "Apostle" York. Handsome and brash, York demands a fire-and-brimstone church, but sets in motion a phenomenal and deadly struggle for the soul of Gibbeah itself. John Crow's Devil is a novel about religious mania, redemption, sexual obsession, and the eternal struggle inside all of us between the righteous and the wicked. Perceptive, gritty, and compelling, this is an absorbing book that dives headfirst into issues facing recovering addicts . . . beautifully written and richly detailed. Library Journal Speak Now is written with extraordinary skill, and is compulsively readable . . . an excellent novel. The Southampton Press Clara Sverdlow has been stalked by Niko Kamenski, her high-school lover, for almost twenty years. A recently sober alcoholic in her mid thirties, she has found happiness in a tenuous new marriage to Mark, another recovering alcoholic. Yet the past lurks over them like a great shadow, always encroaching on their happiness. Clara Sverdlow's father, Viktor, was a Russian political prisoner in Auschwitz. He was involved in the camp underground, helping to "organize" much-needed goods to help the prisoners. But he also worked on the train ramps and helped to guide thousands of innocent victims to the gas chambers. The guilt and horror Viktor still carries with him are part of his daughter Clara's natural composition, something she doesn't understand and yet accepts as one would a congenital illness. It shapes her every action, and is at the root of her every phobia. Mark has his own demons -- a brother dead from a drug overdose, and connections to his hometown heavies, which he can't seem to break free of. Yet together they have found a tenuous grace. With a miracle baby, they are trying to forget the past and learn to live normally in the world. But Clara's stalker Niko Kamenski secretly insinuates himself upon their life, with disastrous consequences. Clara and Mark's only hope is to address the past, and confront the present situation before it's too late.

Alicia is a smart, confident and gorgeous prostitute in Havana. She is not a street-walker. Rather, she displays her wares on bicycle, seducing men through the irresistible pull of her fine derrière. John King, her new client, is a Canadian businessman with a striking resemblance to movie star Alain Delon. This is no ordinary “John” and Alicia's feelings for him grow; she sees in their relationship the possibility of escape from her dead-end life in a Havana plagued with scarcity. When John King’s wealthy and sexually deviant boss is suddenly killed, Alicia and John hatch a get-rich-quick scheme. A web of deception is woven, but just as quickly unraveled disastrously, and only one person is able to say "adiós” to the dilapidated island of Cuba.

Daniel Chavarría was born in Uruguay in 1933. He spent the 1960s involved in several South American liberation struggles. He fled the continent and settled in Havana, Cuba, where he has resided since 1969. From 1975 to 1986, Chavarría worked as a translator of literature into Spanish, and taught Latin, Greek and Classical Literature at the University of Havana. His novels, short stories, literary journalism, and screenplays have reached audiences across Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Chavarría has won numerous literary awards around the world, including a 1992 Dashiell Hammett Award. Adiós Muchachos is his first novel to be translated into English. In 2002, Akashic Books will publish his mystery novel, The Eye of Cybele, set in ancient Greece.

Winner of the 2002 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original.

"The novel describes the ill-fated alliance between Alicia, a stunningly beautiful prostitute who openly displays her voluptuous wares by bicycle on the city streets, and Victor King, a desperately ambitious Canadian businessman with an enormous appetite for kinky sex and buried treasure - and a striking resemblance to Mel Gibson.". "Following an early erotic entanglement of their own, Victor hires Alicia to lure a series of handsome lovers into the bedroom of his estate for the voyeuristic gratification of his mysterious wife, Elizabeth, who watches the action with her husband through a two-way mirror. After a sultry drunken dance results in the accidental death of Victor's wealthy Dutch business partner, Rieks Groote, Victor sees his ambitions for wealth suddenly go up in smoke and Alicia faces the end to her dreams of escaping her dreary, dead-end life on the island.". "Hustlers all the way, the two quickly decide to turn disaster into opportunity, hiding the body in a freezer and hatching an elaborate kidnapping scheme that will allow them to steal millions of dollars from the Groote family and start a new life together off the island. Through a series of startling plot twists and slapstick misadventures, Victor and Alicia find themselves unwittingly manipulated and ultimately outmaneuvered by a sympathetic fellow hustler. In the end, everything revolves around the secret ingredient to an old family recipe and a long-overdue nose job - as only one of the novel's characters is able to make off with the loot and bid adios to Cuba and the past."--BOOK JACKET. "Nina Revoyr brings us a compelling story of race, love, murder and history against the backdrop of Los Angeles. A young Japanese-American woman, Jackie Ishida, is in her last semester of law school when her grandfather, Frank Sakai, dies unexpectedly. Frank was a veteran of World War II who, many years before, had owned a store in the Crenshaw district, one of the first racially mixed areas in the city and now the heart of L.A.'s black community. While trying to fulfill a request from his will, Jackie discovers that four black teenagers were killed in the store during the Watts Riots of 1965--and that the murders were never solved or reported. Along with James Lanier, a cousin of one of the victims, she tries to piece together the story of the boys' deaths. In the process, Jackie unearths the long-held secrets of her family's history--and her own. Southland explores the fragile understandings and sometimes painful misunderstandings that occur across the lines of race and culture. It is also the story of an ever-changing city. Moving in and out of the past, from the shipping yards and internment camps of World War II; to the barley fields of the Crenshaw district in the 1930s; to the mean streets of Watts in the 1960s; to the night spots and garment factories of the 1990s, Southland weaves a tale of Los Angeles in all of its faces and forms." -- From back cover This Edgar Award–winning crime novel offers “pulp fiction in Castro's Cuba” (Martin Cruz Smith, author The Girl from Venice). Alicia is a smart, confident, and gorgeous prostitute in Havana. She is not a streetwalker. Rather, she displays her wares on bicycle, seducing men through the irresistible pull of her fine derrière. John King, her new client, is a Canadian businessman with a striking resemblance to movie star Alain Delon. This is no ordinary john, and as Alicia's feelings for him grow, she sees in their relationship the possibility of escape from her dead-end life in a city plagued with scarcity. So when King's wealthy and sexually deviant boss is suddenly killed, Alicia and John hatch a get-rich-quick scheme. A web of deception is woven—but it will be quickly and disastrously unraveled, and only one person will be able to say adiós to the dilapidated island of Cuba... “Fun, fast, and intelligent... A madcap caper full of twisted sex, devious schemes and high-rolling hijinks... Will leave readers clamoring for more.” —Publishers Weekly “The book's cynical take on ambition and greed is tempered by humor and humanity.” —The New York Times “Impossible to put down. This is a great read.” —Library Journal "Scars of the Soul Are Why Kids Wear Bandages When They Don't Have Bruises is a confessional, stylistic account (in the Joan Didion tradition) of coming of age in the Bronx alongside the birth and evolution of hip-hop culture. This essay collection presents a journalistic mosaic of seminal figures in hip-hop, documentary essays exploring the social decay of hip-hop, and a substantial element of memoir, as well as observations on the generational issues of urban America." "Miles Marshall Lewis captures the political ambitions of Russell Simmons, the Black Spades gang foundation of Afrika Bambaataa and the Universal Zulu Nation, the spiritual sensibility of KRS-One and the Temple of Hiphop, and the debate on the materialistic, violent direction of hip-hop culture. Interpreting the mood and inner-city atmosphere that birthed the counterculture of hip-hop, Bronx native Lewis details the circumstances of his father's heroin addiction, his mother's Southern spirituality, his grandfather's career as a Harlem numbers runner, and his own journey from a tenement-building upbringing to worldwide travels - with hip-hop training his steps."--BOOK JACKET. Nina Revoyr brings us a compelling story of race, love, murder, and history against the backdrop of Los Angeles. A young Japanese-American woman, Jackie Ishida, is in her last semester of law school when her grandfather, Frank Sakai, dies unexpectedly. While trying to fulfill a request from his will, Jackie discovers that 4 black teenagers were killed in the store he ran during the Watts Riots of 1965—and that the murders were never solved or reported. Along with James Lanier, a cousin of one of the victims, she tries to piece together the story of the boys' deaths. In the process, Jackie unearths the long-held secrets of her family's history—and her own. Moving in and out of the past, from the shipping yards and internment camps of World War II; to the barley fields of the Crenshaw District in the 1930s; to the means streets of Watts in the 1960s; to the night spots and garment factories of the 1990s, Southland weaves a tale of L.A. in all of its faces and forms. La 4ème de couv. indique : "In Southland, her award-winning second novel, Nina Revoyr brings us a compelling story of race, love, murder, and history against the backdrop of Los Angeles. A young Japanese-american woman, Jackie Ishida, is in her last semester of law school when her grandfather, Frank Sakai, dies unexpectedly. Frank was a veteran of World War II who, many years before, had owned a store in the Crenshaw district, one of the first racially mixed areas in the city and now the heart of L.A.'s black community. While trying to fulfill a request from his will, Jackie discovers that four black teenagers were killed in the store during the Watts Riots of 1965 - and that the murders were never solved or reported. Along with James Lanier, a cousin of one of the victims, she tries to piece together the story of the boys' deaths. In the process, Jackie unearths the long-held secrets of her family's history - and her own." "A powerful first novel . . . Writing with assurance and control, James uses his small-town drama to suggest the larger anguish of a postcolonial society struggling for its own identity." — New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) "Elements coalesce in a Jamaican stew spicier than jerk chicken. First novelist James moves effortlessly between lyrical patois and trenchant observations . . . It's 150-proof literary rum guaranteed to intoxicate and enchant. Highly recommended." — Library Journal (*starred* review) This stunning debut novel tells the story of a biblical struggle in a remote Jamaican village in 1957 with language as taut as classic works by Cormac McCarthy and a richness reminiscent of early Toni Morrison. Marlon James was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1970. His second novel, The Book of Night Women , a New York Times Editors' Choice, was released in 2009 to widespread critical acclaim.... Scars of the Soul Are Why Kids Wear Bandages When They Don't Have Bruises is a confessional, stylistic account (in the Joan Didion tradition) of coming of age in the Bronx alongside the birth and evolution of hip-hop culture. Scars captures the political ambitions of Russell Simmons, the Black Spades gang foundation of Afrika Bambaataa and the Universal Zulu Nation, the spiritual sensibility of KRS-One and the Temple of HipHop, and a keynoted debate on the materialistic, violent direction of hip-hop culture. Interpreting the mood and inner-city atmosphere that caused the counterculture of hip-hop, Bronx native Miles Marshall Lewis details the circumstances of his father's heroin addiction, his mother's Southern spirituality, his grandfather's career as a Harlem numbers runner, and his own journey from a tenement-building upbringing to worldwide travels--with hip-hop trailing his steps

“Lewis has composed an observant and urban B-boy’s rites of passage . . . a hiphop bildungsroman told in prose full of buoyancy and bounce.”—Greg Tate, author of Flyboy in the Buttermilk

Scars of the Soul is a confessional, stylistic account (in the Joan Didion tradition) of coming-of-age in the Bronx alongside the birth and evolution of hip-hop culture.

Miles Marshall Lewis was born in the Bronx in 1970 and currently lives in Manhattan. He is a former editor of Vibe and XXL, and his work has been published in The Nation, The Source, the Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Essence and other magazines. He holds a B.A. in sociology from Morehouse College and studied at the Fordham University School of Law.

"Want a scathing social and political satire? Look no further than Norman Kelley’s second effort featuring ‘bad girl’ African-American PI and part-time intellectual Nina Halligan—it’s a romp of a read . . ."—Publishers Weekly (starred review of The Big Mango, the previous Nina Halligan Mystery)

A hit on a notorious hip-hop star plunges Nina into the vortex of a violent power struggle to control a valuable commodity in the recording industry, namely black music.

Norman Kelley is the author of the Nina Halligan mystery series—Black Heat (Amistad/HarperCollins) and The Big Mango (Akashic)—and the -editor of R&B (Rhythm and Business): The Political Economy of Black Music (Akashic).

Limbo is a powerful and moving debut novel, telling the story of Trinidadian-born Pharaoh Chisholms cultural isolation when he and his family migrate from the multicultural hub of Los Angeles to Trondheim, a small, homogenous city hidden between fjords in the middle of Norway. Sean Keith Henry was born in Port-of- Spain, Trinidad, and grew up in Boston, Mass. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Notre Dame. He lived for four years in Norway and now resides in Southern California with his wife and two chil-dren. His stories have been published in Obsidian II , Salamander and Callaloo . Fiction. Latin/Latina Studies. In Havana, Cuba, a beautiful young woman rides a bicycle through the city streets to lure men into her "services". Desperate to escape her dead-end life in a city plagued with scarcity, the luscious bicyclist designs a get-rich-quick scheme with a gorgeous john from Canada. A web of deception is woven and then disastrously unraveled Jackie Ishida, a young Japanese American woman living in Los Angeles, learns of the deaths of four young men in her grandfather's store during the 1965 Watts riot, and sets out to discover the truth about their deaths, along the way uncovering some long-buried family secrets as well. This Debut Novel Tells The Story Of A Biblical Struggle In A Remote Jamaican Village In 1957. In The Village Of Gibbeah, Magic Coexists With Religion, And Good And Evil Are Never As They Seem In This Tale Of Religious Mania, Redemption, And Sexual Obsession. Marlon James. Joining forces with her husband, a musician and music journalist, to find out who is behind the current rise in hip-hop artist murders, Nina Halligan delves into the music world where nothing is what it seems

paperback Reissue Of The Highly Acclaimed Literary Thriller From The Daughter Of James Jones

capital Times

bull's-eye Writing.