Deacon King Kong: Barack Obama Favourite Read & Oprah's Book Club Pick

Description

A New York Times bestseller about community, race and religion from the National Book Award winner, James McBride ? NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK ? CHOSEN BY BARACK OBAMA AS A FAVOURITE READ ? TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR, NEW YORK TIMES & WASHINGTON POST 'Brilliantly imagined, larger than life, a tragicomedic epic.' JOYCE CAROL OATES 'Deeply felt, beautifully written and profoundly humane.' JUNOT DIAZ 'The sheer volume of invention in Deacon King Kong commands awe.' NEW YORKER 'Among the greatest American storytellers of our time.' BOOKPAGE The year is 1969. In a housing project in south Brooklyn, a shambling old church deacon called Sportcoat shoots - for no apparent reason - the local drug-dealer who used to be part of the church's baseball team. The repercussions of that moment draw in the whole community, from Sportcoat's best friend - Hot Sausage - to the local Italian mobsters, the police (corrupt and otherwise), and the stalwart ladies of the Five Ends Baptist Church. DEACON KING KONG is a book about a community under threat, about the ways people pull together in an age when the old rules are being rewritten. It is very funny in places, and heartbreaking in others. From a prize-winning storyteller, this New York Times bestseller shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, and that the communities we build are fragile but vital. ______________________ From the winner of a National Book Award and author of the bestselling memoir,The Color of Water, and The Good Lord Bird, a TV series starring Ethan Hawke 'A hilarious, pitch-perfect comedy set in the Brooklyn projects of the late 1960s. This alone may qualify it as one of the year's best novels.' The Washington Post What Goodreads readers are saying- ***** 'Deacon King Kong is one of those novels whose brilliance sneaks up on you. I haven't been this pleasantly surprised by a book in a while.' ***** 'I do believe I just finished one of my all time favorite books. I loved every minute spent with Sportcoat and his community. A good old fashioned yarn shot through with truth, spirit, and humor. I LOVED it!' ***** 'This book was a balm for my soul, a portrait of a black church community circa 1969 with sweet characters (well, most of them), interconnections that stretch back decades, and a plot with more than one mystery at its heart.' ***** '"Deacon" has the texture of folk lore and fable mixed with the unexpected rhythms of jazz and the noisy streets of late 1960s Brooklyn.' ***** 'The ending was one of those where you clutch your heart and want to hug the book (or your Kindle).'

James McBride is the author of the award-winning New York Times bestsellers, The Color of Water and The Good Lord Bird, which is currently being made into a television series starring Ethan Hawke. A former reporter for The Washington Post and People magazine, McBride holds a Masters degree in journalism from Columbia University and a B.A. from Oberlin College. In 2015 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama.

The sheer volume of invention in Deacon King Kong commands awe...And the sentences! The prose radiates a kind of chain-reaction energy. * NEW YORKER * Deacon King Kong is full of heart, humor, and compassion...I say we give him another National Book Award for this one. It's that good. * NPR * Deacon King Kong reaffirms James McBride's position among the greatest American storytellers of our time. * BOOKPAGE * Hilarious...A rich and vivid multicultural history. * TIME * Perhaps you wouldn't expect your next great read to be a sort of comic opera set in a Brooklyn housing project circa 1969 starring a drink-addled church deacon named Sportcoat, his best friend Hot Sausage and a melancholic amateur gardener with mafia ties known as the Elephant. Best put on your seat belt, because McBride (The Good Lord Bird, Five-Carat Soul) will take you on a fast, funny, farcical ride. * WASHINGTON POST * McBride is operating in the realm of social allegory, a lineage that extends back through generations of writers: Ralph Ellison, Terry Southern, Darius James. Like them, he telegraphs his intentions through the use - or better yet, the reinvention - of history, which as Deacon King Kong progresses becomes a kind of floating opera, touching but not always overlapping with events as they occurred. * LA TIMES * Deacon King Kong cements McBride as a master storyteller. * SHELF AWARENESS * Dazzling, spiritually rich. * OPRAH magazine * Peopled with wondrously quirky and charismatic individuals...both hilarious and affecting, the patter a treat, and in wise, drunk, old Sportcoat James McBride has given us a character for the ages. * BIG ISSUE *