Book
Cahokia jazz : a novel / Francis Spufford.
"Like Golden Hill, Cahokia Jazz inhabits a different version of America, and like Golden Hill it has a propulsive and brilliantly twisty plot set within a fully imagined world. Only this world is full of fog, cigarette smoke, dubious motives, danger, and dark deeds. And in the main character of Joe Barrow, we have a hero of truly heroic proportions, and a troubled soul to fall in love with. One snowy night at the end of winter, Barrow and his partner find a body on the roof of a skyscraper. Down below, streetcar bells ring, factory whistles blow, Americans drink in speakeasies and dance to the tempo of modern times. But this is Cahokia, the ancient indigenous city beside the Mississippi living on as a teeming industrial metropolis containing every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. But the corpse on the roof will spark a week of drama in which this altered world will spill its secrets and be brought, against a soundtrack of wailing clarinets, either to destruction or to rebirth"-- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781668025451 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: 436 pages : illustrations, maps, genealogical table ; 24 cm
- Edition: First Scribner hardcover edition.
- Publisher: New York : Scribner, 2024.
- Copyright: ©2023
Content descriptions
| General Note: | "Originally published in Great Britain in 2023 by Faber & Faber Ltd"--Title page verso. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Murder > Fiction. Nineteen twenties > United States > Fiction. Secrecy > Fiction. Cahokia (Ill.) > Fiction. Illinois > History > 20th century > Fiction. |
| Genre: | Alternative histories (Fiction) Noir fiction. Novels. |
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lakeshore Branch | FIC Spuff | 31681010358448 | FICTION | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
A detective and his indigenous jazz pianist partner investigate a seemingly ordinary murder that ultimately threatens to unravel the peace and reveal hidden secrets in an alternate history version of 1920s America where Native American populations thrived. Illustrations. - Baker & Taylor
"Like Golden Hill, Cahokia Jazz inhabits a different version of America, and like Golden Hill it has a propulsive and brilliantly twisty plot set within a fully imagined world. Only this world is full of fog, cigarette smoke, dubious motives, danger, anddark deeds. And in the main character of Joe Barrow, we have a hero of truly heroic proportions, and a troubled soul to fall in love with. One snowy night at the end of winter, Barrow and his partner find a body on the roof of a skyscraper. Down below, streetcar bells ring, factory whistles blow, Americans drink in speakeasies and dance to the tempo of modern times. But this is Cahokia, the ancient indigenous city beside the Mississippi living on as a teeming industrial metropolis containing every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. But the corpse on the roof will spark a week of drama in which this altered world will spill its secrets and be brought, against a soundtrack of wailing clarinets, either to destruction or to rebirth"-- - Simon and Schuster
* Winner of the Sidewise Award for Alternate History * Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction * Named a Best Book of the Year by the New Yorker, The New York Times, Fresh Air (top 10 pick), NPR, the Los Angeles Times (top 15 pick),The Washington Post, and more!
The bestselling and award-winning author of Golden Hill delivers a "dazzling" (Los Angeles Times), âsmoky, brooding noir set in the 1920sâ (Slate) that reimagines how American history would be different if, instead of being decimated, indigenous populations had thrived.
Like his earlier novel Golden Hill, Francis Spuffordâs Cahokia Jazz inhabits a different version of America, now through the lens of a subtly altered 1920sâa fully imagined world filled with fog, cigarette smoke, dubious motives, danger, and dark deeds. In the main character of hard-boiled detective Joe Barrow, we have a hero of truly epic proportions, a troubled soul to fall in love with as you are swept along by a propulsive and brilliantly twisty plot.
One snowy night at the end of winter, Barrow and his partner find a body on the roof of a skyscraper. Down below, streetcar bells ring, factory whistles blow, Americans drink in speakeasies and dance to the tempo of modern times. But this is Cahokia, the ancient indigenous city beside the Mississippi living on as a teeming industrial metropolis containing people of every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. Yet that corpse on the roof will spark a week of drama in which this altered world will spill its secrets and be brought, against a soundtrack of jazz clarinets and wailing streetcars, either to destruction or rebirth.
âAtmosphericâ¦many of us will recognize our own held-breath bafflement, caught, as we are, on the darkling plain of our own barely believable timesâ (The Washington Post).
