{"product_id":"the-broken-king-9780802120144","title":"The Broken King","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"There's a bridge of beautiful American prose--lyrical, powerful, fearlessly candid--running straight from James Baldwin to Thomas, who is obviously Baldwin's worthy heir . . . An utterly immersive book.\"--Francisco Goldman, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist \u003ci\u003eMonkey Boy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the author of \u003ci\u003eMan Gone Down\u003c\/i\u003e--a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Top Ten Book of the Year and winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award--comes a deeply personal memoir of race, trauma, alcoholism, parenting, mental illness and ultimately hope in a portrait of three generations of Black American men\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 2007, Michael Thomas launched into the literary world with his award-winning first novel \u003ci\u003eMan Gone Down\u003c\/i\u003e, a beautiful and devastating story of a Black father trying to claim a piece of the American Dream. Called \"powerful and moving . . . an impressive success,\" by Kaiama L. Glover on the cover of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e, Thomas' debut introduced a writer of prodigious and rare talent. In his long-awaited encore and first work of nonfiction, \u003ci\u003eThe Broken King\u003c\/i\u003e, Thomas explores fathers and sons, lovers and the beloved, trauma and recovery, success and failure in a unique, urgent, and timeless memoir. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe title is borrowed from T.S. Eliot's line in \"Little Gidding\" \"If you came at night like a broken king,\" and the work ponders the process of being broken. Akin to Baldwin's \u003ci\u003eThe Fire Next Time\u003c\/i\u003e or Nabokov's \u003ci\u003eSpeak, Memory\u003c\/i\u003e, Thomas' memoir unfolds through six powerful, interlocking and overlaying parts focusing on the lives of five men: his father--a philosopher, Boston Red Sox fan, and absent parent; his estranged older brother; his two sons growing up in Brooklyn; and always, heartbreakingly himself. At the center of \u003ci\u003eThe Broken King\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of Thomas' own breakdown, a result of inherited family history and his own experiences, from growing up Black in the Boston suburbs to publishing a prize-winning novel with \"the house of Beckett.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEvery page of \u003ci\u003eThe Broken King\u003c\/i\u003e rings with the impact of America's sweeping struggle with race and class, education and family, and builds to a brave, meticulous articulation of a creative mind's journey into and out of madness\u003cb\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Grove Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/05\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780802120144\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 416\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/15\/2012 pg. 93\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 11\/01\/2013 pg. 106\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Michael Thomas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45484021416117,"sku":"9780802120144","price":23.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_9dcdccde-a075-41f5-90c8-c40a6db2f0aa.jpg?v=1749566182","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-broken-king-9780802120144","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}