Their Eyes Were Watching God

'Spuren im Staub' wurde erstmals 1942 auf dem Höhepunkt von Zora Neale Hurstons Popularität veröffentlicht und ist ihre freimütige, witzige, kühne und ergreifende Autobiografie. Eindrucksvoll und überschwänglich erzählt sie darin von ihrer Kindheit im ländlichen Süden und von ihrem Aufstieg zu einer der führenden Künstlerinnen und Intellektuellen der Harlem Renaissance.Hurstons sehr persönliches literarisches Selbstporträt ist fesselnd und bietet einen aufschlussreichen, oft kühnen Einblick in das Leben - öffentlich und privat - einer außergewöhnlichen Künstlerin, Anthropologin, Chronistin und Verfechterin der Black Experience in Amerika. Voller Witz und Weisheit einer stolzen, temperamentvollen Frau, die ganz unten anfing und ganz oben ankam, ist 'Spuren im Staub' ein seltener Schatz von einer der meistgeschätzten Stimmen der Literatur.

Zora Neale Hurston’s beloved classic—a PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick—available in a special deluxe edition featuring gold sprayed edges, foil, embossed lettering, and a custom foil stamp on the cover.“A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don’t know how to live properly. . . . Hurston believed in the transformative power of storytelling, and she took risks with sentiment that few contemporary writers are prepared to make.”—Zadie SmithOriginally published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God has become one of the most important and enduring works of modern American literature. Written with Zora Neale Hurston’s singular wit and pathos, this Southern love story recounts Janie Crawford’s “ripening from a vibrant, but voiceless, teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the trigger of her own destiny.”A tale of awakening and independence featuring a strong female protagonist driven to fulfill her passions and ambitions, Their Eyes Were Watching God is a masterpiece of the Harlem Renaissance and perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the American literary canon.

New York Times Bestseller . TIME Magazine's Best Nonfiction Book of 2018 . New York Public Library's Best Book of 2018 . NPR's Book Concierge Best Book of 2018 . Economist Book of the Year . SELF.com's Best Books of 2018 . Audible's Best of the Year . BookRiot's Best Audio Books of 2018 . The Atlantic's Books Briefing: History, Reconsidered . Atlanta Journal Constitution, Best Southern Books 2018 . The Christian Science Monitor's Best Books 2018 . "A profound impact on Hurston's literary legacy."-New York Times"One of the greatest writers of our time."-Toni Morrison"Zora Neale Hurston's genius has once again produced a Maestrapiece."-Alice WalkerA major literary event: a newly published work from the author of the American classic Their Eyes Were Watching God, with a foreword from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, brilliantly illuminates the horror and injustices of slavery as it tells the true story of one of the last-known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade-abducted from Africa on the last "Black Cargo" ship to arrive in the United States.In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation's history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo's firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States.In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile founded by Cudjo and other former slaves from his ship. Spending more than three months there, she talked in depth with Cudjo about the details of his life. During those weeks, the young writer and the elderly formerly enslaved man ate peaches and watermelon that grew in the backyard and talked about Cudjo's past-memories from his childhood in Africa, the horrors of being captured and held in a barracoon for selection by American slavers, the harrowing experience of the Middle Passage packed with more than 100 other souls aboard the Clotilda, and the years he spent in slavery until the end of the Civil War.Based on those interviews, featuring Cudjo's unique vernacular, and written from Hurston's perspective with the compassion and singular style that have made her one of the preeminent American authors of the twentieth-century, Barracoon masterfully illustrates the tragedy of slavery and of one life forever defined by it. Offering insight into the pernicious legacy that continues to haunt us all, black and white, this poignant and powerful work is an invaluable contribution to our shared history and culture.

Janie kann von einem erfüllten Leben nur träumen. Zu ihrer ersten Ehe mit einem deutlich älteren Mann wird sie von ihrer Großmutter gezwungen, und läuft bald mit einem anderen davon. Doch auch diese zweite Ehe wird sich nicht als glücklich erweisen. Und so macht Janie sich auf den Weg ins Unbekannte. Reich an Er- fahrungen, guten wie schlechten, kehrt sie Jahre später nach Hause zurück. In einer einzigen Nacht, in Florida im Jahr 1928, erzählt Janie ihrer besten Freundin Pheoby, wie sie aufbrach in ein anderes Leben, wie sie den viel jüngeren Tea Cake traf, endlich das Glück fand und was geschah, als der große Hurrikan kam. In Janies Geschichte geht es um nichts weniger als um das, was Menschen, ob Frau oder Mann, schwarz oder weiß, im Innersten ausmacht. Von ihrer Reise kehrt Janie als eine andere zurück - und auch wer ihre Geschichte hört, wird nie mehr sein, wer er war. Eine der schönsten und traurigsten Liebesgeschichten, die je geschrieben wurden.

Florida 1928. In einer einzigen Nacht erzählt Janie ihrer besten Freundin Pheoby, wie sie aufbrach, ein anderes Leben zu führen, wie sie den viel jüngeren Tea Cake traf, endlich das Glück fand und was geschah, als der große Hurrikan kam. In Janies Geschichte geht es um nicht weniger als um das, was Menschen, ob Frau oder Mann, schwarz oder weiß, im Innersten ausmacht. Von ihrer Reise kehrt Janie als ein neuer Mensch zurück - und mit ihr alle, die ihre Geschichte hören. Zu Recht gilt der Roman als eine der schönsten, traurigsten und herzergreifendsten Liebesgeschichten, die je geschrieben wurden.

Ein einmaliger Zeitzeugenbericht: Die bisher unveröffentlichte Lebensgeschichte des letzten amerikanischen Sklaven"Barracoon" erzählt die wahre Geschichte von Oluale Kossola, auch Cudjo Lewis genannt, der 1860 auf dem letzten Sklavenschiff nach Nordamerika verschleppt wurde. Die große afroamerikanische Autorin Zora Neale Hurston befragte 1927 den damals 86-Jährigen über sein Leben. In berührenden Worten schildert er seine Jugend im heutigen Benin, die Gefangennahme und Unterbringung in den sogenannten "Barracoons", den Baracken, in die zu verkaufende Sklaven eingesperrt wurden, seine Zeit als Sklave in Alabama, seine Freilassung und seine anschließende Suche nach den eigenen Wurzeln und einer Identität in den rassistisch geprägten USA.

ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL NOVELS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY<BR><BR>'This novel is a packet of surprises as we have no idea what's going to happen next' GUARDIAN<BR><BR>'One of the greatest writers of our time' TONI MORRISON<BR><BR>'Devilishly funny and academically solid: delicious mixture' MAYA ANGELOU<BR><BR>'There is no novel I love more' ZADIE SMITH<BR><BR>She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her . . .<BR><BR>When, at sixteen, Janie is caught kissing shiftless Johnny Taylor, her grandmother swiftly marries her off to an old man with sixty acres. Janie endures two stifling marriages before meeting the man of her dreams - who offers not diamonds, but a packet of flowering seeds.<BR><BR>Books included in the VMC 40th anniversary series include: Frost in May by Antonia White; The Collected Stories of Grace Paley; Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault; The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter; The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann; Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith; The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; Heartburn by Nora Ephron; The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy; Memento Mori by Muriel Spark; A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor; and Faces in the Water by Janet Frame

Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth.<BR><BR> When, at sixteen, Janie is caught kissing shiftless Johnny Taylor, her grandmother swiftly marries her off to an old man with sixty acres. Janie endures two stifling marriages before meeting the man of her dreams - who offers not diamonds, but a packet of flowering seeds. Rediscovered and championed by Alice Walker in the 1970s, Hurston's lyrical novel of self-discovery is now acclaimed as one of the greatest American classics of the twentieth century.<BR><BR>INTRODUCED BY ZADIE SMITH<BR><BR>'There is no novel I love more' ZADIE SMITH<BR><BR>'This novel is a packet of surprises' GUARDIAN<BR> <BR> 'One of the greatest writers of our time' TONI MORRISON<BR><BR> 'Zora Neale Hurston was a knockout' MAYA ANGELOU<BR><BR>'There is no book more important to me than this one. It speaks to me as no novel, past or present, has ever done.' ALICE WALKER

Zora Neale Hurston's tragic 1926 play Color Struck is a thought-provoking commentary on colorism within the Black community. Set in Florida in 1900, Colour Struck begins on a Jim Crow train carriage. Barely making the train, Emma and John's journey commences with an argument. Emma saw John speaking to a lighter-skinned Black woman, Effie, and was immediately jealous, assuming he was flirting. Throughout the play Emma continues to display animosity towards those with lighter skin, which often results in calamity. Exploring themes of colorism, self-destruction, and hatred, Zora Neale Hurston's 1926 tragedy comments on intra-racial racism and warns of the adverse effects of harbouring hatred. Color Struck was first published in Fire!! magazine and won second prize in the Opportunity magazine's contest for best play. Now republished in a new edition, Hurston's play is not one to be missed by those with an interest in Harlem Renaissance literature.

From the prolific Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston, 'Spunk' and 'Sweat' are thought-provoking short stories set in the heart of African-American communities following the civil war. 'Spunk', first published in 1925, is set in an all-Black community in rural America and poses the question of whether moral strength is more powerful than physical strength. Spunk Banks is described as a 'giant'. He is unafraid of anything or anyone, but when he openly flaunts his affair with Lena Kanty, Joe Kanty's wife, could it be his superstition rather than a physical weakness that is his downfall? 'Sweat', first published in 1926, is an early feminist story, presenting the contrasting lives of a married couple: the sweat and toil of Delia and the leisure and privilege of her abusive husband, Sykes. When it becomes apparent that both want their relationship to end, Sykes appears to be willing to go to horrific measures to ensure Delia is out of his life for good. Zora Neale Hurston explores themes of fortitude, integrity, and early intersectional feminism. Portraying contemporary issues in the everyday lives of Black people, Hurston was an important literary figure in the Harlem Renaissance. This collection has been published together with an introductory essay on the Harlem Renaissance and would make a wonderful addition to the bookshelves of Zora Neale Hurston fans.

Abducted from Africa, sold in America."A deeply affecting record of an extraordinary life"- Daily TelegraphA major literary event: a newly published work from the author of the American classic Their Eyes Were Watching God, with a foreword from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker.The true story of one of the last-known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade.In August 1931, famed anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston travelled to Alabama to visit ninety-year-old Cudjo Lewis, a former slave.Over three months, Cudjo shared heart-rending memories of his childhood in Africa; the horrors of being captured - fifty years after slavery was outlawed - and held in the Ouidah barracoons for selection by American slavers; the harrowing ordeal of the Middle Passage aboard the Clotilda with over one hundred other souls; and the years he spent in slavery.Barracoon brings to life Cudjo's singular voice in an invaluable contribution to history and culture, a work as poignant as it is profound.