Song yet sung - James McBride

In the tense days before the American Civil War, in the swamplands of the Maryland shore, a wounded slave girl and her visions of the future tear a community apart in a riveting drama of hope and redemption.

Kidnappings, gunfights and chases ensue in this extraordinary story of violence, tragic triumph, and unexpected kindness.

'Gripping, affecting, and beautifully paced' - OPRAH MAGAZINE

'Escaped slaves, free blacks, slave-catchers, and plantation owners weave a tangled web of intrigue and adventure' - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

James McBride is an award-winning writer and musician. He has been a staff writer for the Washington Post, People magazine, and the Boston Globe. His memoir and tribute to his mother, The Color of Water, spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list, was published worldwide, and was the winner of the prestigious Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. As a composer, he won the American Music Theater Festival's Stephen Sondheim Award for his jazz/pop musical Bobos, and has composed songs for Anita Baker, Grover Washington Jr., and Gary Burton. A jazz saxophonist, he has performed with Rachelle Farrell and with legendary jazz performer Little Jimmy Scott. He lives in Pennsylvania.

McBride's intricately constructed and impressive second novel . . . he nails the horrors of slavery as well as he does the power of hope and redemption

In Denwood's grim, fatalistic pursuit of his destiny, McBride has fashioned a myth of retribution and sacrifice that recalls both William Faulkner's sagas of blighted generations and Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon . Explosively dramatic.

Gripping . . . One often risks turning the pages so fast as to miss some of the richness and subtlety of the writing.

By turns tender and savage, McBride's novel is a harsh commentary on the inequalities in society both past and present