Song of the Shank

A contemporary American masterpiece about music, race, an unforgettable man, and an unreal America during the Civil War era

At the heart of this remarkable novel is Thomas Greene Wiggins, a nineteenth-century slave and improbable musical genius who performed under the name Blind Tom.
Song of the Shank opens in 1866 as Tom and his guardian, Eliza Bethune, struggle to adjust to their fashionable apartment in the city in the aftermath of riots that had driven them away a few years before. But soon a stranger arrives from the mysterious island of Edgemere--inhabited solely by African settlers and black refugees from the war and riots--who intends to reunite Tom with his now-liberated mother.
As the novel ranges from Tom's boyhood to the heights of his performing career, the inscrutable savant is buffeted by opportunistic teachers and crooked managers, crackpot healers and militant prophets. In his symphonic novel, Jeffery Renard Allen blends history and fantastical invention to bring to life a radical cipher, a man who profoundly changes all who encounter him.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Published: 06/17/2014
ISBN: 9781555976804
Pages: 570
Weight: 1.71lbs
Size: 9.08h x 6.02w x 1.22d
Award: PEN/Faulkner Award - Finalist

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 04/07/2014
Booklist 04/15/2014 pg. 31
Library Journal 05/15/2014 pg. 64
Kirkus Reviews 06/01/2014
Essence 07/01/2014 pg. 42
New York Times Book Review 06/22/2014 pg. 1
New York Times Book Review 06/29/2014 pg. 26
Kirkus Best Fiction 11/15/2014 pg. 7
NY Times Notable Bks of Year 12/07/2014 pg. 27
Booklist Editors Choice/Adult 01/01/2015 pg. 11