The Birdcatcher

FINALIST FOR THE 2025 PULITZER PRIZE IN FICTION<BR><BR>"One of our greatest living authors."—Lauren LeBlanc, The Boston Globe<BR> <BR>Marking a dramatic new direction for Jones, a riveting tale set in the Post WWII South, narrated by a Black soldier who returns to Jim Crow and searches for a mythical ideal<BR><BR>Set in the early 1950s, this latest novel from Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Gayl Jones follows the witty but perplexing army veteran Buddy Ray Guy as he embodies the fate of Black soldiers who return, not in glory, but into their Jim Crow communities.<BR><BR>A cook and tractor repairman, Buddy was known as Budweiser to his army pals because he’s a wise guy. But underneath that surface, he is a true self-educated intellectual and a classic seeker: looking for religion, looking for meaning, looking for love.<BR><BR>As he moves around the south, from his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, primarily, to his second home of Memphis, Tennessee, he recalls his love affairs in post-war France and encounters with a variety of colorful characters and mythical prototypes: circus barkers, topiary trimmers, landladies who provide shelter and plenty of advice for their all-Black clientele, proto feminists, and bigots. The lead among these characters is, of course, The Unicorn Woman, who exists, but mostly lives in Bud’s private mythology.<BR><BR>Jones offers a rich, intriguing exploration of Black (and Indigenous) people in a time and place of frustration, disappointment, and spiritual hope.

Die größte vergessene Schriftstellerin Amerikas!Kentucky 1947: Jeden Abend singt Ursa in Happy's Café den Blues. Die Männer hängen an ihren Lippen. Denn Ursas Gesang handelt vom Schmerz und vom Bösen. Er gilt Corregidora, einem Sklavenhalter des vergangenen Jahrhunderts, der gleichzeitig ihr Großvater und Urgroßvater ist. Diesen Fluch muss Ursa überwinden. Nur wenn sie in ihrem Takt singt, wenn sie auf ihre Art liebt, wenn sie endlich zu sich kommt, kann sie Corregidora bannen. - Ein zutiefst ergreifender Roman über die Schmach des amerikanischen Erbes und die Sehnsucht nach Selbstbehauptung.Gayl Jones' Roman'Corregidora'ist ein Klassiker der afroamerikanischen Literatur. Am Beispiel der Blues-Sängerin Ursa erzählt er von den generationsübergreifenden Traumatisierungen des Gewaltsystems der Versklavung. Entdeckt und veröffentlicht wurde dieser bahnbrechende Roman in den USA von Toni Morrison im Jahr 1975. Danach könne kein Roman über eine Schwarze Frau mehr sein wie vorher, sagte die spätere Nobelpreisträgerin. Denn Gayl Jones hat das Unfassbare in Worte gefasst.Fast 50 Jahre später erscheint'Corregidora'nun auf Deutsch in der Übersetzung von Pieke Biermann im Kanon Verlag. Verlag und Übersetzerin sind sich der großen Herausforderung und Verpflichtung bewusst, die mit der Neuveröffentlichung eines "Slave Narratives" im heutigen Kontext einhergehen. Kritisch wurde etwa hinterfragt, ob rassistisches Vokabular wiederverwendet werden muss, da es retraumatisierend auf Betroffene wirken kann und keinesfalls im täglichen Sprachgebrauch reproduziert werden sollte. Gewissenhaft wurde letztlich entschieden, einige abwertende Begriffe wiederzugeben oder im englischen Original zu belassen. Pieke Biermanns Übersetzung gibt die brutale Sprache eines ganzen Jahrhunderts wieder. Das ist mitunter schwer erträglich, in seiner Intensität aber Zeugnis einer klaren Haltung gegenüber der Geschichte: Sie darf nicht vergessen werden.

2022 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Fiction<BR><BR>A NPR BOOKS WE LOVE 2021 Selection<BR><BR>A New York Times “Biggest New Books Coming Out in September” Selection · A New York Times Book Review Editors Choice Pick · A Guardian “50 Biggest Books of Autumn 2021” Selection · An Esquire “Best Books of Fall 2021” Selection · A Buzzfeed “Best Books Coming Out This Fall” Selection · A Bustle “Most Anticipated Books of September 2021” Selection  · A LitHub “22 Novels You Need to Read This Fall” Selection · A Kirkus Reviews “16 Best Books to Read in September” Selection · A Root September “PageTurner”<BR><BR>“This story shimmers. Shakes. Wails. Moves to rhythms long forgotten . . . in many ways: holy. [A] masterpiece.”—The New York Times Book Review<BR><BR>The epic rendering of a Black woman’s journey through slavery and liberation, set in 17th-century colonial Brazil; the return of a major voice in American literature.<BR><BR>First discovered and edited by Toni Morrison, Gayl Jones has been described as one of the great literary writers of the 20th century. Now, for the first time in over 20 years, Jones is ready to publish again. Palmares is the first of five new works by Gayl Jones to be published in the next two years, rewarding longtime fans and bringing her talent to a new generation of readers.<BR><BR>Intricate and compelling, Palmares recounts the journey of Almeyda, a Black slave girl who comes of age on Portuguese plantations and escapes to a fugitive slave settlement called Palmares. Following its destruction, Almeyda embarks on a journey across colonial Brazil to find her husband, lost in battle.<BR><BR>Her story brings to life a world impacted by greed, conquest, and colonial desire. She encounters a mad lexicographer, desperate to avoid military service; a village that praises a god living in a nearby cave; and a medicine woman who offers great magic, at a greater price.<BR><BR>Combining the author’s mastery of language and voice with her unique brand of mythology and magical realism, Jones reimagines the historical novel. The result is a sweeping saga spanning a quarter century, with vibrant settings and unforgettable characters, steeped in the rich oral tradition of its world. Of Gayl Jones, the New Yorker noted, “[Her] great achievement is to reckon with both history and interiority, and to collapse the boundary between them.” Like nothing else before it, Palmares embodies this gift.

'Die brutalste, ehrlichste und schmerzhafteste Offenbarung dessen, was in den Seelen schwarzer Männer und Frauen passiert ist und passiert.' James BaldwinEva Medina Canada sitzt im Knast, schweigsam und ohne Reue. Sie hat ihren Liebhaber ermordet, warum, bleibt ihr Geheimnis. Ihre Erinnerungen kreisen um die Begegnungen mit den Männern in ihrem Leben - den Schuljungen, den Freund ihrer Mutter, den Cousin, ihren Ehemann, einen Fremden im Bus. Solange sich Eva erinnern kann, wurde sie bedrängt, überhört und missbraucht. Es sind singuläre Erlebnisse, die aufgehen in einer universellen weiblichen Erfahrung: der vermeintlichen Verführerin. - Die unmittelbaren Gedanken und Gefühle einer schwarzen Frau, der die Selbstermächtigung auf tragische Weise gelingt. Gayl Jones ist damit ein grandioses literarisches Kunststück gelungen. Diesen Roman vergisst man nicht.'Eine literarische Gigantin und eine meiner absoluten Lieblingsautorinnen' Tayari Jones

No novel about any Black woman could ever be the same after this' TONI MORRISON<BR><BR>I dreamed with my eyes open. All the Corregidora women with narrow waists and high cheekbones and wide hips. All the Corregidora women dancing.<BR><BR> Blues singer Ursa is consumed by her hatred of Corregidora, the nineteenth-century slave master who fathered both her mother and grandmother. Charged with 'making generations' to bear witness to this legacy of abuse, Ursa must confront her family history after a fight with her husband leaves her unable to have children. Haunted by the ghosts of a Brazilian plantation, pained by the fractured relationships of her present, she slowly and firmly strikes her own terms with womanhood.<BR><BR>Upon publication in 1975, Corregidora was hailed as a masterpiece, winning acclaim from writers including James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and John Updike. Exploring themes such as race, sexuality and the long repercussions of slavery, this powerful novel paved the way for Beloved and The Colour Purple.<BR><BR>'Corregidora is the most brutally honest and painful revelation of what has occurred, and is occurring, in the souls of Black men and women' JAMES BALDWIN<BR> <BR> 'A literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers' TAYARI JONES<BR><BR> 'An American writer with a powerful sense of vital inheritance, of history in the blood' JOHN UPDIKE, NEW YORKER<BR>

'A literary giant' TAYARI JONES<BR><BR>A richly imaginative and moving new novel from the Pulitzer finalist and acclaimed author of Corregidora<BR><BR>A cook and tractor repairman, Buddy was known as Budweiser to his army pals because he's a wise guy. But underneath that surface, he's a man on a quest: looking for religion, looking for meaning, looking for love.<BR><BR>Returning from the Second World War not to a hero's welcome, but to the discrimination of the Jim Crow laws, Buddy stumbles across the Unicorn Woman, a carnival sideshow with a horn growing from her forehead, whose strange beauty he can't forget.<BR><BR>As he drifts across the South, from Kentucky to Memphis, Buddy encounters a dazzling array of almost mythic characters: circus barkers, topiary trimmers, landladies who provide shelter and plenty of advice for their all-Black clientele, proto feminists and bigots - dreaming all the while of the unforgettable Unicorn Woman herself.<BR><BR>With her inimitable eye for beauty, tragedy and humour, Jones offers a rich, intriguing exploration of the Black imagination in a time of frustration and hope.<BR><BR>'Her truth-telling, filled with beauty, tragedy, humour, and incisiveness, is unmatched' IMANI PERRY<BR><BR>'Gayl Jones is enjoying a dazzling late-career renaissance' SUZI FEAY, TLS<BR><BR>'Intricate, mesmerising and endlessly inventive' DEESHA PHILYAW

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST 2022<BR><BR>Publishers Weekly Top 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2022<BR><BR>“Gayl Jones’s work represents a watershed in American literature."<BR>—Imani Perry<BR><BR>Legendary writer Gayl Jones returns with a stunning new novel about Black American artists in exile<BR><BR>Gayl Jones, the novelist Toni Morrison discovered decades ago and Tayari Jones recently called her favorite writer, has been described as one of the great literary writers of the 20th century. Now, for the first time in over 20 years, Jones is publishing again. In the wake of her long-awaited fifth novel, Palmares, The Birdcatcher is another singular achievement, a return to the circles of her National Book Award finalist, The Healing.<BR><BR>Set primarily on the island of Ibiza, the story is narrated by the writer Amanda Wordlaw, whose closest friend, a gifted sculptor named Catherine Shuger, is repeatedly institutionalized for trying to kill a husband who never leaves her. The three form a quirky triangle on the white-washed island.<BR><BR>A study in Black women’s creative expression, and the intensity of their relationships, this work from Jones shows off her range and insight into the vicissitudes of all human nature—rewarding longtime fans and bringing her talent to a new generation of readers.