McBride
2015 Longlist

The Good Lord Bird

artwork-image

ABOUT
THE BOOK

From the bestselling author of The Color of Water and Song Yet Sung comes the story of a young boy born a slave who joins John Brown’s antislavery crusade-and who must pass as a girl to survive.

Henry Shackleford is a young slave living in the Kansas Territory in 1857, when the region is a battleground between anti- and pro-slavery forces. When John Brown, the legendary abolitionist, arrives in the area, an argument between Brown and Henry’s master quickly turns violent. Henry is forced to leave town-with Brown, who believes he’s a girl.

Over the ensuing months, Henry-whom Brown nicknames Little Onion-conceals his true identity as he struggles to stay alive. Eventually Little Onion finds himself with Brown at the historic raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859-one of the great catalysts for the Civil War.

An absorbing mixture of history and imagination, and told with McBride’s meticulous eye for detail and character, The Good Lord Bird is both a rousing adventure and a moving exploration of identity and survival.

 

 

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR James
McBride

James McBride is the author of the New York Times-bestselling Oprah’s Book Club selection Deacon King Kong, the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird, the million-copy-bestselling memoir The Colour of Water, the novels Song Yet Sung and Miracle at St. Anna, the story collection Five-Carat Soul, and Kill ‘Em and Leave, a biography of James Brown. The recipient of a National Humanities Medal and an accomplished musician, McBride is also a distinguished writer in residence at New York University.

James McBride is the author of the New York Times-bestselling Oprah’s Book Club selection Deacon King Kong, the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird, the million-copy-bestselling memoir The Colour of Water, the novels Song Yet Sung and Miracle at St. Anna, the story collection Five-Carat Soul, and Kill ‘Em and Leave, a biography of James Brown. The recipient of a National Humanities Medal and an accomplished musician, McBride is also a distinguished writer in residence at New York University.

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NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

Little Onion, a 10 year old slave boy, is mistaken for a girl after being freed by abolitionist John Brown and his raiders, and becomes an unwitting (and unwilling) participant in Brown’s quixotic fight to end slavery. His colloquial, tall-tale prose offers a humorous, irreverent perspective on the historic mythologies and realities of racism, and what happens when good intentions and good words are not enough.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
30/04/2016
Author
Publisher
Riverhead Books

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