"Half-Blood Blues" by Esi Edugyan
Pretty impressed by this second novel of local Edugyan which is on the short list for the Man Booker. I hope it wins the Booker...wow, how exciting would that be! The Julian Barnes which is touted to win is only 150 pages...come on...this isn't a novel. And a review in The Guardian seems to agree. Winner announced Oct 18...keeping my fingers crossed.
Takes place in Germany in the 30's, Paris, 1940 and Poland 1992. The story is about a brilliant jazz musician is arrested by the Nazis in Paris, 1940 and is never heard from again. He was black and German. Flash forward to 1992 when he turns up in Poland and a couple of his old band members seek him out. Mostly, it's all about jazz, and blacks, anti-semitism, and all that stuff going on in the 30's and WW II. Beautifully written...I highly recommend it.
