Best Selling Books by Edward P. Jones

From Edward P. Jones comes one of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory—winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. The Known World tells the story of Henry Townsend, a black farmer and former slave who falls under the tutelage of William Robbins, the most powerful man in Manchester County, Virginia. Making certain he never circumvents the law, Townsend runs his affairs with unusual discipline. But when death takes him unexpectedly, his widow, Caldonia, can''t uphold the estate''s order, and chaos ensues. Edward P. Jones has woven a footnote of history into an epic that takes an unflinching look at slavery in all its moral complexities. “A masterpiece that deserves a place in the American literary canon.”—Time

Fourteen poignant stories depicting African American life in Washington, D.C., by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Known World. The nation’s capital that serves as the setting for the stories in Edward P. Jones’s prize-winning collection, Lost in the City, lies far from the city of historic monuments and national politicians. Jones takes the reader beyond that world into the lives of African American men and women who work against the constant threat of loss to maintain a sense of hope. From “The Girl Who Raised Pigeons” to the well-to-do career woman awakened in the night by a phone call that will take her on a journey back to the past, the characters in these stories forge bonds of community as they struggle against the limits of their city to stave off the loss of family, friends, memories, and, ultimately, themselves. Critically acclaimed upon publication, Lost in the City introduced Jones as an undeniable talent, a writer whose unaffected style is not only evocative and forceful but also filled with insight and poignancy.

“Original and arresting….[Jones’s] stories will touch chords of empathy and recognition in all readers.” —Washington Post “These 14 stories of African-American life…affirm humanity as only good literature can.” —Los Angeles Times A magnificent collection of short fiction focusing on the lives of African-American men and women in Washington, D.C., Lost in the City is the book that first brought author Edward P. Jones to national attention. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and numerous other honors for his novel The Known World, Jones made his literary debut with these powerful tales of ordinary people who live in the shadows in this metropolis of great monuments and rich history. Lost in the City received the Pen/Hemingway Award for Best First Fiction and was a National Book Award Finalist. This beautiful 20th Anniversary Edition features a new introduction by the author, and is a wonderful companion piece to Jones’s masterful novel and his second acclaimed collection of stories, All Aunt Hagar’s Children.

In fourteen sweeping and sublime stories, five of which have been published in The New Yorker, the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Known World shows that his grasp of the human condition is firmer than ever Returning to the city that inspired his first prizewinning book, Lost in the City, Jones has filled this new collection with people who call Washington, D.C., home. Yet it is not the city''s power brokers that most concern him but rather its ordinary citizens. All Aunt Hagar''s Children turns an unflinching eye to the men, women, and children caught between the old ways of the South and the temptations that await them further north, people who in Jones''s masterful hands, emerge as fully human and morally complex, whether they are country folk used to getting up with the chickens or people with centuries of education behind them. In the title story, in which Jones employs the first-person rhythms of a classic detective story, a Korean War veteran investigates the death of a family friend whose sorry destiny seems inextricable from his mother''s own violent Southern childhood. In \"In the Blink of God''s Eye\" and \"Tapestry\" newly married couples leave behind the familiarity of rural life to pursue lives of urban promise only to be challenged and disappointed. With the legacy of slavery just a stone''s throw away and the future uncertain, Jones''s cornucopia of characters will haunt readers for years to come.

The classic debut collection from Pulitzer Prize winner James Alan McPherson Hue and Cry is the remarkably mature and agile debut story collection from James Alan McPherson, one of America’s most venerated and most original writers. McPherson’s characters -- gritty, authentic, and pristinely rendered -- give voice to unheard struggles along the dividing lines of race and poverty in subtle, fluid prose that bears no trace of sentimentality, agenda, or apology. First published in 1968, this collection includes the Atlantic Prize-winning story “Gold Coast” (selected by John Updike for the collection Best American Short Stories of the Century). Now with a new preface by Edward P. Jones, Hue and Cry introduced America to McPherson’s unforgettable, enduring vision, and distinctive artistry.

In this anthology, uncover a century of dark mystery stories set in America’s mighty capital. Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of city-based noir anthologies launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book is compromised of stories set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city in the book. The original D.C. Noir, a groundbreaking collection of new fiction by sixteen different writers, displayed the curatorial prowess of bestselling author George Pelecanos. In D.C. Noir 2: The Classics, Pelecanos once again assembles an enchanting array of dark and subversive stories, this time selecting the very best of Washington’s historical literary legacy. Classic reprints from: Edward P. Jones, George Pelecanos, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, James Grady, Julian Mayfield, Marita Golden, Elizabeth Hand, Julian Mazor, Ward Just, Jean Toomer, Roach Brown, Larry Neal, and others. Praise for D.C. Noir 2 “By broadly interpreting what constitutes noir, Pelecanos has been able to include writers as diverse as Langston Hughes and Ward Just in this high-quality reprint anthology. In his introduction, Pelecanos describes his vision of “a century-long overview of D.C. fiction that would focus on issues of race, ethnicity, politics, class, and the attendant struggles and changes that occurred in various eras of our history.” —Publishers Weekly

A collection of fourteen short stories is set in Washington, D.C., and follows morally complex characters caught between the old ways of the South and the temptations of modern city life.

Der afroamerikanische Autor Edward P. Jones schildert in seinem Roman äDie bekannte Weltä in nüchternem Tonfall die Brutalität der Sklaverei in den Südstaaten der USA. Dabei deckt er ein recht unbekanntes Detail auf: Dass auch freigelassene Sklaven Sklaven kauften und misshandelten.

A newlywed from Mississippi begins to regret her marriage on the journey to her new husband''s home.

Henry Townsend, a black farmer and former slave, falls under the tutelage of William Robbins, the most powerful man in Manchester County, Virginia, but when death takes Robbins unexpectedly, his widow, Caldonia, cannot uphold the estate''s order and chaos ensues.

Virginia, vent''anni prima della guerra di secessione: Henry Townsend, nato in schiavitù e poi affrancato dal padre quand''era ancora adolescente, diventa proprietario di una piantagione con più di trenta schiavi al suo servizio. Dopo aver tagliato i ponti con la famiglia e aver rinnegato le sue origini, lascerà, una volta morto, tutti i possedimenti in gestione alla moglie Caldonia. In questo romanzo corale, appassionante e struggente, Edward P. Jones, autore nero, ribalta completamente la prospettiva attraverso cui narrare della schiavitù.

Ganadora del Premio Pulitzer 2004 y reconocida como el mejor libro de ficción del siglo XXI por el New York Times, The Known Worl, de Edward P. Jones, es una novela debut de una profundidad emocional asombrosa y un poder literario inigualable, y sigue demostrando su importancia en el canon literario estadounidense. A través de sorprendentes giros e imprevistos de la vida en la Virginia de los años previos a la Guerra Civil, Henry Townsend, granjero, fabricante de botas y antiguo esclavo, se convierte en propietario de su propia plantación, así como de sus propios esclavos. Cuando muere, su viuda Caldonia sucumbe a un profundo dolor, y las cosas empiezan a desmoronarse en su plantación: los esclavos empiezan a escapar al amparo de la noche y las familias que antes habían encontrado el amor bajo el yugo de la esclavitud empiezan a traicionarse unas a otras. Más allá de la casa de los Townsend, el mundo conocido también se desmorona: los patrulleros blancos mal pagados observan cómo los «traficantes» de esclavos venden a los negros libres para esclavizarlos, y corren rumores sobre rebeliones de esclavos que hacen que las familias blancas se enfrenten a los esclavos que les habían servido durante años. Obra maestra, ambiciosa, valiente y luminosamente escrita, The Known World entrelaza a la perfección las vidas de los liberados y los esclavizados, y nos permite a todos comprender mejor el perdurable mundo multidimensional creado por la esclavitud como institución. The Known World no sólo marca el regreso de un escritor extraordinariamente dotado, sino de una notable contribución al canon de la literatura clásica estadounidense. ----- Winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize Award and recognized as the best book of fiction in the 21st century by the New York Times, Edward P. Jones''s The Known World is a debut novel of stunning emotional depth and unequaled literary power and continues to show its importance to the American literary canon. Henry Townsend, a farmer, boot maker, and former slave, through the surprising twists and unforeseen turns of life in antebellum Virginia, becomes proprietor of his own plantation—as well his own slaves. When he dies, his widow Caldonia succumbs to profound grief, and things begin to fall apart at their plantation: slaves take to escaping under the cover of night, and families who had once found love under the weight of slavery begin to betray one another. Beyond the Townsend household, the known world also unravels: low-paid white patrollers stand watch as slave “speculators” sell free black people into slavery, and rumors of slave rebellions set white families against slaves who have served them for years. An ambitious, courageous, luminously written masterwork, The Known World seamlessly weaves the lives of the freed and the enslaved—and allows all of us a deeper understanding of the enduring multidimensional world created by the institution of slavery. The Known World not only marks the return of an extraordinarily gifted writer, but of a remarkable contribution to the canon of American classic literature.

Dans l''Amérique d''avant la guerre de Sécession, où les Blancs tenaient les Noirs en esclavage, il existait des Noirs libres qui possédaient des esclaves. A partir de cette \" anomalie \

Henry Townsend, a black farmer, boot maker, and former slave, has a fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor -- William Robbins, perhaps the most powerful man in antebellum Virginia''s Manchester County. Under Robbins''s tutelage, Henry becomes proprietor of his own plantation -- as well as of his own slaves. When he dies, his widow, Caldonia, succumbs to profound grief, and things begin to fall apart at their plantation: slaves take to escaping under the cover of night, and families who had once found love beneath the weight of slavery begin to betray one another. Beyond the Townsend estate, the known world also unravels: low-paid white patrollers stand watch as slave \"speculators\" sell free black people into slavery, and rumors of slave rebellions set white families against slaves who have served them for years. An ambitious, luminously written novel that ranges seamlessly between the past and future and back again to the present, The Known World weaves together the lives of freed and enslaved blacks, whites, and Indians -- and allows all of us a deeper understanding of the enduring multidimensional world created by the institution of slavery.

1901. In Washington, Ruth and Aubrey take in a baby left in a tree.

»Eines der seltenen Bücher, die Wunden aufreißen und zugleich heilen.« Oprah Magazine Henry Townsend, ein ehemaliger Schuhmacher und Sklave, ist selbst Sklavenhalter und Besitzer einer Farm geworden. Als er stirbt, zerbricht das fragile Gefüge. Seine Witwe Caldonia erstarrt in Trauer; Sklaven entfliehen; Familien, die unter dem Gewicht der Unfreiheit zusammenhielten, beginnen einander zu betrügen; weiße Patrouillen sehen zu, wie freie Schwarze in die Sklaverei verkauft werden. Edward P. Jones'' Meisterwerk handelt davon, wie die Institution der Sklaverei ihre eigene Welt errichtet, wie sie die Gedanken, Körper und Seele eines jeden Menschen – frei oder unfrei – durchdringt. Die bekannte Welt ist einer der bedeutendsten amerikanischen Romane der vergangenen Jahrzehnte – eine bleibende, leuchtende Charakterstudie, die eine ganz und gar spezifische, glaubwürdige und komplexe Welt in vollendet schöner Prosa erschafft.

Prix Pulitzer pour Le Monde connu, salué par une presse internationale unanime, Edward P. Jones compte désormais parmi les grandes voix de la littérature américaine. Brèves intrigues policières, sagas familiales tissées de remords, de regrets et de nostalgies, ces nouvelles ancrées dans les faubourgs de Washington composent un tableau à la fois pittoresque et émouvant de la communauté noire des Etats-Unis. Une communauté hier fragilisée par l''esclavage et la ségrégation raciale, aujourd''hui traumatisée par la peur de la perte : d''un proche, d''un être cher et plus largement de la mémoire collective. A aucun moment, Jones ne joue les sociologues. En véritable écrivain, il raconte, crée des images, rend palpable des sensations, met à nu des sentiments, dévoile la mélancolie et les tourments de l''âme de ses personnages. La diversité des tonalités du récit, la qualité de la langue, à la fois moderne et inscrite dans la tradition orale et écrite de la littérature afro-américaine, l''extrême finesse d''observation font de Perdus dans la ville une œuvre éminemment brillante et originale.

Verhalen over zwarte mensen in de stad Washington en hun (groot)ouders, die rond 1900 vanuit het zuidoosten van de VS naar deze stad kwamen.