New Releases by James McBride

En 1972, des ouvriers de Pottstown, dans l’État de Pennsylvanie, découvrent des restes humains au fond d’un puits. À Chicken Hill, quartier pauvre où se côtoient Juifs et Noirs américains, l’identité du squelette et la manière dont il est arrivé là sont deux secrets bien gardés. Moshe et Chona vivent là depuis des lustres, et rien n’échappe à leur attention. Moshe s’occupe du théâtre, et Chona, de la petite épicerie du Paradis sur Terre. Alors, quand les autorités commencent à s’intéresser à un gamin sourd, Chona fait tout pour le protéger, aidée par le concierge du théâtre et leader informel de la communauté noire.

Barack-Obama-Nummer-1-Lieblingsbuch des Jahres • Publishers-Weekly-Nummer-1-Buch des Jahres • Amazon-Nummer-1-Buch-des-Jahres • New-York-Times-Bestseller Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1972: Beim Ausheben der Fundamente für ein neues Baugebiet stoßen die Arbeiter am Grund eines Brunnens auf ein Skelett. Wem es gehörte und wie es dorthin kam, kann nur wissen, wer in den Zwanziger- und Dreißigerjahren in Chicken Hill gelebt hat, einem heruntergekommenen Viertel, in dem eingewanderte Juden und Afroamerikaner das Glück teilten ebenso wie die Sorgen. Es war auch das Viertel von Moshe und Chona Ludlow, die dort ein Theater und ein Lebensmittelgeschäft betrieben. Bis eines Tages ein tauber Waisenjunge auftauchte, den die staatlichen Behörden in eine Anstalt einweisen wollten. Und seine letzte Hoffnung ruhte auf Moshe und Chona und der Gemeinde von Chicken Hill ... James McBride taucht tief hinab in die Geschichte dieses Viertels und seiner Figuren, in den alltäglichen Kampf am Rande der Gesellschaft, und erzählt durch die Augen der gerade erst Eingewanderten von einem sich rasend schnell verändernden Amerika, das gerade erst dabei war zu werden, was es heute ist. Bis am Ende schließlich die Wahrheit über die Geschehnisse auf dem Chicken Hill ans Licht kommt - und sich einmal mehr zeigt, dass nur die Liebe und die Gemeinschaft - Himmel und Erde - in dunklen Zeiten Halt geben können.

Korean edition of [The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store] by James McBride. The Runaway New York Times bestseller. One of Barack Obama''s Favorite Books of 2023. From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah''s Book Club pick [Deacon King Kong] and the National Book Award-winning [The Good Lord Bird], a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them. Korean edition translated by Ji Min Park.

''I loved this book'' BONNIE GARMUS ''A generous, compassionate book about the power of love and community'' LOUISE KENNEDY ''I can''t recommend this one highly enough '' HARLAN COBEN ''THIS is his best book'' ANN PATCHETT THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER BARACK OBAMA''S BOOK OF THE YEAR PICK AMAZON.COM #1 BOOK OF THE YEAR BOOK OF THE YEAR IN: THE GUARDIAN, NEW YORKER, NEW YORK TIMES, TIME MAGAZINE, HARPER''S BAZAAR, OPRAH DAILY AND WASHINGTON POST WINNER OF THE 2023 KIRKUS FICTION PRIZE In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighbourhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. As the story moves back in time to the 1930s and the characters'' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community - heaven and earth - that sustain us.

THE RUNAWAY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • A NEW YORK TIMES READERS PICK: 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY WINNER OF THE 2024 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRIZE FOR AMERICAN FICTION FROM ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE''S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE OF 2024 NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR/FRESH AIR, WASHINGTON POST, THE NEW YORKER, AND TIME MAGAZINE ONE OF BARACK OBAMA''S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2023 “A murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel . . . Charming, smart, heart-blistering, and heart-healing.” —Danez Smith, The New York Times Book Review “We all need—we all deserve—this vibrant, love-affirming novel that bounds over any difference that claims to separate us.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah’s Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe. As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us. Bringing his masterly storytelling skills and his deep faith in humanity to The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride has written a novel as compassionate as Deacon King Kong and as inventive as The Good Lord Bird.

Hijo de un hombre negro y una mujer blanca, James McBride creció con sus once hermanos en un barrio pobre de Brooklyn. Su madre, una mujer ferozmente protectora, con «ojos oscuros llenos de energía y fuego», siempre se preocupó por la educación de su prole. Les exigió buenas calificaciones en la escuela mientras ella debía trabajar largas jornadas para llevar un poco de pan y leche a casa. Por el color de su piel y cierto aire extravagante, desde niño McBride vio a su madre como una fuente de vergüenza, preocupación y confusión. Llegados los treinta, decide explorar su pasado y vuelve sobre sus pasos para descubrir la verdadera historia de Rachel Shilsky, una mujer judía que a los diecisiete años huyó de una vida familiar opresiva para casarse con un pastor bautista. Con un estilo franco y preciso, el autor recrea la conmovedora historia de su madre mientras evoca sus propias experiencias como niño mulato y pobre, sus coqueteos con las drogas y la violencia, hasta alcanzar finalmente la autorrealización y el éxito profesional.

"A história divertida, perspicaz e surpreendente do tiro em um traficante de drogas do Brooklyn e das pessoas que testemunharam o ocorrido. Em setembro de 1969, o velho diácono, atrapalhado e excêntrico, conhecido na vizinhança como Paletó, sai cambaleando pelo pátio do Projeto Habitacional Causeway no sul do Brooklyn, tira uma arma calibre 38 do bolso e, na frente de todo mundo, atira à queima-roupa no traficante local. Os motivos para esse rompante desesperado de violência e as consequências dele estão no centro de Diácono King Kong, romance de James McBride e seu primeiro trabalho desde o premiado O pássaro do bom senhor. Em Diácono King Kong, McBride nos apresenta um retrato vívido das pessoas afetadas pelo tiro: a vítima, os residentes afro-americanos e latinos que testemunharam, os vizinhos brancos, os policiais locais designados para investigar os acontecimentos, os membros da Igreja Batista das Cinco Pontas, onde Paletó era diácono, os mafiosos italianos do bairro, e o próprio Paletó. Conforme a história se aprofunda, fica claro que as vidas desses personagens – envolvidos pelo turbilhão que era Nova York no final da década de 1960 – se entrelaçam de maneiras inesperadas. Quando a verdade por fim emerge, McBride mostra que nem todos os segredos podem ser escondidos, que o melhor modo de crescer é enfrentar as mudanças que se apresentam e que as sementes do amor crescem na compaixão e na esperança. Com perspicácia e bom humor, Diácono King Kong demonstra que o amor e a fé vivem dentro de todos nós."

Barack Obama - Lieblingsbücher 2020 Die ruhigen Tage scheinen gezählt in der kleinen Baptistengemeinde "Five Ends" im Süden Brooklyns. An einem warmen Septembertag im Jahr 1969 tritt der alte Diakon Cuffy Lampkin, genannt "King Kong", mit einer Waffe auf den zentralen Platz seines Sozialbauviertels, hält sie vor aller Augen dem hiesigen Drogendealer ins Gesicht - und drückt ab. Ausgerechnet King Kong, der keiner Fliege etwas zuleide tun kann. Wie konnte es dazu kommen? Schnell zeigt sich, dass sich die Schicksale aller Gemeindemitglieder - der Afroamerikaner wie der Latinos, der abgehalfterten Mafiosi wie der korrupten Cops - in dieser unvorstellbaren Tat überkreuzen. Und dass himmlische Gerechtigkeit und Strafe manchmal eine ziemlich irdische Angelegenheit sind...

Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction Winner of the Gotham Book Prize One of Barack Obama''s "Favorite Books of the Year" Oprah''s Book Club Pick New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century Named one of the Top Ten Books of the Year by the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly and TIME Magazine A Washington Post Notable Novel From the author of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, the National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird, and the bestselling modern classic The Color of Water, comes one of the most celebrated novels of the year. In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and, in front of everybody, shoots the project’s drug dealer at point-blank range. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride’s funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird. In Deacon King Kong, McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood’s Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself. As the story deepens, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters—caught in the tumultuous swirl of 1960s New York—overlap in unexpected ways. When the truth does emerge, McBride shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, that the best way to grow is to face change without fear, and that the seeds of love lie in hope and compassion. Bringing to these pages both his masterly storytelling skills and his abiding faith in humanity, James McBride has written a novel every bit as involving as The Good Lord Bird and as emotionally honest as The Color of Water. Told with insight and wit, Deacon King Kong demonstrates that love and faith live in all of us.

« Enfant, je n''ai jamais su d''où venait ma mère. » Arrivé à l''âge adulte, James McBride interroge celle qui l''a élevé et dont la peau est tellement plus claire que la sienne. Il découvre l''histoire cachée de Ruth, fille d''un rabbin polonais qui a bravé tous les interdits pour épouser un Noir protestant en 1942. Reniée par sa famille, elle élève James et ses onze frères et sœurs dans la précarité, le chaos et la joie. Pour elle, peu importe la couleur de peau. Seul compte l''avenir de ses enfants. Ils feront des études, et ainsi choisiront leur vie. Tressant leurs souvenirs, James McBride raconte, plein d''amour et de fierté, une femme forte et secrète, lucide et naïve, imperméable aux préjugés : sa mère. L''hommage fulgurant d''un immense écrivain à sa mère. La Promesse de l''aube dans les quartiers noirs de Brooklyn.

Now a Showtime limited series starring Ethan Hawke and Daveed Diggs Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction From the bestselling author of Deacon King Kong (an Oprah Book Club pick) and The Color of Water 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 1856--a battleground between anti- and pro-slavery forces--when legendary abolitionist John Brown arrives. When an argument between Brown and Henry''s master turns violent, Henry is forced to leave town--along with Brown, who believes Henry to be a girl and his good luck charm. Over the ensuing months, Henry, whom Brown nicknames Little Onion, conceals his true identity to stay alive. Eventually Brown sweeps him into 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.

Quatre Buffalo Soldiers croisent le destin d''un village, et d''un petit garçon. New York,1983. Un vieil employé sans histoire abat froidement un homme avec un antique pistolet allemand. On découvre dans son appartement la tête d''une statue italienne à la valeur inestimable. Enfermé à l''asile, le meurtrier livrera son récit. Celui de quatre soldats perdus au cœur de la campagne italienne en 1944. Celui d''un gamin de huit ans qu''ils viennent de secourir et qui ne prononce pas un mot. Celui d''un petit village coutumier des histoires de trahison et des miracles en tout genre.

Un vendeur de jouets émerveillé face au plus précieux jouet du monde dont l''existence n''était jusqu''ici qu''un mythe ; une bande de gamins dont la musique transforme le quotidien d''un ghetto noir en Pennsylvanie ; un conte de la guerre de Sécession avec un Abraham Lincoln aux allures de Père Noël ; un zoo avec des animaux qui parlent et se moquent des humains, si maladroits... Ces miniatures ont en commun la part de magie qui peut surgir à tout moment de notre existence. Lumineuse et imprévisible, la vie bouillonne et prend toujours le dessus, surtout si l''on tend la main aux autres. James McBride, lauréat du National Book Award, explore avec tendresse et humour la condition humaine pour nous réconcilier un peu plus avec nous-mêmes.

Die Farbe von Wasser erzählt die Geschichte James McBrides, der in den sechziger Jahren – den Zeiten von Malcolm X und Martin Luther Kings – an der Seite von elf Geschwistern in New York aufwächst. Vor allem aber erzählt es die bewegende Geschichte seiner weißen Mutter Ruth, die 1921 in Polen als Tochter eines orthodoxen Rabbiners geboren wird, mit zwei Jahren mit ihrer Familie nach Amerika auswandert und mit 17 für immer ihr Elternhaus in Virgina verlässt, um in New York einen Schwarzen zu heiraten. Eine Familiengeschichte wie ein Roman, mit einer Heldin, die wie selbstverständlich über Rassenkonflikte und persönliche Entbehrungen triumphiert.

One of The New York Times'' 100 Notable Books of 2017 “A pinball machine zinging with sharp dialogue, breathtaking plot twists and naughty humor... McBride at his brave and joyous best.” —New York Times Book Review From the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Lord Bird, winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction, Deacon King Kong, and Kill ''Em and Leave, a James Brown biography. The stories in Five-Carat Soul—none of them ever published before—spring from the place where identity, humanity, and history converge. They’re funny and poignant, insightful and unpredictable, imaginative and authentic—all told with McBride’s unrivaled storytelling skill and meticulous eye for character and detail. McBride explores the ways we learn from the world and the people around us. An antiques dealer discovers that a legendary toy commissioned by Civil War General Robert E. Lee now sits in the home of a black minister in Queens. Five strangers find themselves thrown together and face unexpected judgment. An American president draws inspiration from a conversation he overhears in a stable. And members of The Five-Carat Soul Bottom Bone Band recount stories from their own messy and hilarious lives. As McBride did in his National Book award-winning The Good Lord Bird and his bestselling The Color of Water, he writes with humor and insight about how we struggle to understand who we are in a world we don’t fully comprehend. The result is a surprising, perceptive, and evocative collection of stories that is also a moving exploration of our human condition.

Conflito e humor se mesclam na epopeia pela libertação que levou o National Book Award de 2013. Henry Shackleford é um menino escravizado no território do Kansas em 1856. Uma das grandes figuras do momento é John Brown, lendário abolicionista que vê na insurreição armada o único caminho para a libertação. E, quando Brown chega ao Kansas, o garoto vê-se forçado a deixar a cidade na companhia do abolicionista, que o toma por uma menina. O excêntrico Brown, então, apelida Henry de "Cebola", adotando-o como seu amuleto, e o jovem, de modo a permanecer vivo, oculta sua verdadeira identidade. A pequena Cebola pode contar apenas com a própria engenhosidade para sobreviver à violência crescente entre Brown, com o apoio de seu exército esfarrapado, e os senhores de escravos, antes do lendário ataque a Harpers Ferry, onde a história norte-americana tomará novos rumos. Uma narrativa arrebatadora, descrita pela voz de um ancião que rememora sua infância, O pássaro do bom senhor fará o leitor rir e pensar. É uma aventura envolvente, contada a partir do olhar meticuloso para personagens e detalhes característicos de McBride.

En 1856, Henry Shackleford, douze ans, traîne avec insouciance sa condition de jeune esclave noir. Jusqu''à ce que le légendaire abolitionniste John Brown débarque en ville avec sa bande de renégats. Henry se retrouve alors libéré malgré lui et embarqué à la suite de ce chef illuminé qui le prend pour une fille. Affublé d''une robe et d''un bonnet, le jeune garçon sera brinquebalé des forêts où campent les révoltés aux salons des philanthropes en passant par les bordels de l''Ouest, traversant quelques-unes des heures les plus marquantes du XIXe siècle américain. Dans cette épopée romanesque inventive et désopilante, récompensée par le prestigieux National Book Award en 2013, James McBride revisite avec un humour féroce et une verve truculente l''histoire de son pays et de l''un de ses héros les plus méconnus.

As a citizen of two worlds, how do we represent God in this natural world effectively? This is the question many pastors and ministry leaders haven''t thought about. As Kingdom citizens in this earthly world, we have a mandate to represent our God with Kingdom excellence.

“You won’t leave this hypnotic book without feeling that James Brown is still out there, howling.”—The Boston Globe From the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Lord Bird, winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction, Deacon King Kong, and Five-Carat Soul Kill ’Em and Leave is more than a book about James Brown. Brown embodied the contradictions of American life: He was an unsettling symbol of the tensions between North and South, black and white, rich and poor. After receiving a tip that promises to uncover the man behind the myth, James McBride goes in search of the “real” James Brown. McBride’s travels take him to forgotten corners of Brown’s never-before-revealed history, illuminating not only our understanding of the immensely troubled, misunderstood, and complicated Godfather of Soul, but the ways in which our cultural heritage has been shaped by Brown’s enduring legacy. Praise for Kill ’Em and Leave “A tour de force of cultural reportage.”—The Seattle Times “Thoughtful and probing.”—The New York Times Book Review “Masterly . . . powerful.”—Los Angeles Review of Books “McBride provides something lacking in most of the books about James Brown: an intimate feeling for the musician, a veracious if inchoate sense of what it was like to be touched by him. . . . It may be as close [to ‘the real James Brown’] as we’ll ever get.”—David Hajdu, The Nation “A feat of intrepid journalistic fortitude.”—USA Today “[McBride is] the biographer of James Brown we’ve all been waiting for. . . . McBride’s true subject is race and poverty in a country that doesn’t want to hear about it, unless compelled by a voice that demands to be heard.”—Boris Kachka, New York “Illuminating . . . engaging.”—The Washington Post “A gorgeously written piece of reportage that gives us glimpses of Brown’s genius and contradictions.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

Ausgezeichnet mit dem National Book Award. Kansas im Jahre 1857: Hier, im Mittleren Westen der USA, lebt der junge Sklave Henry Shackleford. Hier tobt auch der Krieg zwischen überzeugten Sklavenhaltern und bibeltreuen Abolitionisten besonders wüst. John Brown ist einer derjenigen, die beseelt davon sind, Gottes Willen durchzusetzen und die Schwarzen in die Freiheit zu führen. Als er zufällig in einer Kneipe auf Henrys grausamen Master trifft – einen weithin bekannten und berüchtigten Sklavenhalter –, kommt es zu einer gewalttätigen Auseinandersetzung, in deren Folge beide fliehen müssen: sowohl John Brown als auch der junge Henry, der irrtümlicherweise für ein Mädchen gehalten wird und schnell begreift, dass dies seine Vorteile hat ...

Fleeing her violent master at the side of legendary abolitionist John Brown at the height of the slavery debate in mid-19th-century Kansas Territory, Henry pretends to be a girl to hide his identity throughout the historic raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. By the best-selling author of The Color of Water. (historical fiction).

Now a Showtime limited series starring Ethan Hawke and Daveed Diggs Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction From the bestselling author of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, Deacon King Kong (an Oprah Book Club pick) and The Color of Water 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 1856--a battleground between anti- and pro-slavery forces--when legendary abolitionist John Brown arrives. When an argument between Brown and Henry''s master turns violent, Henry is forced to leave town--along with Brown, who believes Henry to be a girl and his good luck charm. Over the ensuing months, Henry, whom Brown nicknames Little Onion, conceals his true identity to stay alive. Eventually Brown sweeps him into 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.

Riverhead Books is proud to present our Summer 2013 Insider which gives readers more information about the stories behind—or sometimes from within—our Summer 2013 list. Included in the Riverhead Books Summer 2013 Insider are: A Q&A with Khaled Hosseini, author of And the Mountains Echoed, an unforgettable novel about finding a lost piece of yourself in someone else. An interview with Pransky, the layabout mutt turned therapy dog at the heart of Sue Halpern’s A Dog Walks into a Nursing Home: Lessons in the Good Life from an Unlikely Teacher. Ramona Ausubel’s essay, “Transformation,” about the inspiration for A Guide to Being Born, her enthralling new collection that uses the world of the imagination to explore the heart of the human condition. “The Story in the Mountains,” an essay by Anton DiSclafani about writing her debut novel, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, a lush, sexy evocative story of family secrets and girls’-school rituals set in the 1930s South. “Looking through the Looking Glass,” an essay by Anna Badkhen on how she came to write The World is a Carpet, her unforgettable portrait of a place and people shaped by centuries of art, trade and war. A note from Mark Kurlansky about “Dancing in the Street,” the iconic song he uses as a lens to examine the story of the civil rights movement’s genesis in his new book, Ready for a Brand New Beat Matthew Berry’s essay, “It’s Fantasy Sports World, You Just Live in It,” about the growing world of fantasy sports and how it has shaped his career and personal life which he details in his new book, Fantasy Life. “Noodles of the Silk Road,” a field guide by Jen Lin-Liu, author of On the Noodle Road, in which she immerses herself in a moveable feast of foods and cultures and discovers some surprising truths about commitment, independence, and love A brief history of the historic raid on Harper’s Ferry which plays a key role in James McBride’s new novel, The Good Lord Bird, 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. Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s essay, “Memories of the Years of Chaos,” about how Colombia’s recent history informs his new novel, The Sound of Things Falling Each of these pieces is an engaging and informative introduction to these truly wonderful books.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Lord Bird, winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction, and Deacon King Kong James McBride’s powerful memoir, The Color of Water, was a groundbreaking literary phenomenon that transcended racial and religious boundaries, garnering unprecedented acclaim and topping bestseller lists for more than two years. Now McBride turns his extraordinary gift for storytelling to fiction—in a universal tale of courage and redemption inspired by a little-known historic event. In Miracle at St. Anna, toward the end of World War II, four Buffalo Soldiers from the Army’s Negro 92nd Division find themselves separated from their unit and behind enemy lines. Risking their lives for a country in which they are treated with less respect than the enemy they are fighting, they discover humanity in the small Tuscan village of St. Anna di Stazzema—in the peasants who shelter them, in the unspoken affection of an orphaned child, in a newfound faith in fellow man. And even in the face of unspeakable tragedy, they—and we—learn to see the small miracles of life. This acclaimed novel is now a major motion picture directed by Spike Lee.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Lord Bird, winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction, Deacon King Kong, Five-Carat Soul, and Kill ''Em and Leave, a James Brown biography. In the days before the Civil War, a runaway slave named Liz Spocott breaks free from her captors and escapes into the labyrinthine swamps of Maryland’s eastern shore, setting loose a drama of violence and hope among slave catchers, plantation owners, watermen, runaway slaves, and free blacks. Liz is near death, wracked by disturbing visions of the future, and armed with “the Code,” a fiercely guarded cryptic means of communication for slaves on the run. Liz’s flight and her dreams of tomorrow will thrust all those near her toward a mysterious, redemptive fate. Filled with rich, true details—much of the story is drawn from historical events—and told in McBride’s signature lyrical style, Song Yet Sung is a story of tragic triumph, violent decisions, and unexpected kindness.

From the bestselling author of Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird: The modern classic that spent more than two years on The New York Times bestseller list and that Oprah.com calls one of the best memoirs of a generation. Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother''s past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, The Color Of Water: A Black Man''s Tribute to His White Mother. The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in "orchestrated chaos" with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. "Mommy," a fiercely protective woman with "dark eyes full of pep and fire," herded her brood to Manhattan''s free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades, and commanded respect. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion—and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain. In The Color of Water, McBride retraces his mother''s footsteps and, through her searing and spirited voice, recreates her remarkable story. The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, she was born Rachel Shilsky (actually Ruchel Dwara Zylska) in Poland on April 1, 1921. Fleeing pogroms, her family emigrated to America and ultimately settled in Suffolk, Virginia, a small town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high. With candor and immediacy, Ruth describes her parents'' loveless marriage; her fragile, handicapped mother; her cruel, sexually-abusive father; and the rest of the family and life she abandoned. At seventeen, after fleeing Virginia and settling in New York City, Ruth married a black minister and founded the all- black New Brown Memorial Baptist Church in her Red Hook living room. "God is the color of water," Ruth McBride taught her children, firmly convinced that life''s blessings and life''s values transcend race. Twice widowed, and continually confronting overwhelming adversity and racism, Ruth''s determination, drive and discipline saw her dozen children through college—and most through graduate school. At age 65, she herself received a degree in social work from Temple University. Interspersed throughout his mother''s compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self- realization and professional success. The Color of Water touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son.

These consumable books provide lesson support material for students to analyze and complete. They provide a long-term record of each student’s mathematical development.