{"product_id":"a-free-state-a-novel-isbn-9780062284129","title":"A Free State: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe author of \u003cem\u003eCity of Refuge\u003c\/em\u003e returns with a startling and powerful novel of race, violence, and identity set on the eve of the Civil War.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe year is 1855. Blackface minstrelsy is the most popular form of entertainment in a nation about to be torn apart by the battle over slavery. Henry Sims, a fugitive slave and a brilliant musician, has escaped to Philadelphia, where he earns money living by his wits and performing on the street. He is befriended by James Douglass, leader of a popular minstrel troupe struggling to compete with dozens of similar ensembles, who imagines that Henry’s skill and magnetism might restore his troupe’s sagging fortunes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe problem is that black and white performers are not allowed to appear together onstage. Together, the two concoct a masquerade to protect Henry’s identity, and Henry creates a sensation in his first appearances with the troupe. Yet even as their plan begins to reverse the troupe’s decline, a brutal slave hunter named Tull Burton has been employed by Henry’s former master to track down the runaway and retrieve him, by any means necessary.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBursting with narrative tension and unforgettable characters, shot through with unexpected turns and insight, \u003cem\u003eA Free State\u003c\/em\u003e is a thrilling reimagining of the American story by a novelist at the height of his powers.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003eThe author of \u003cem\u003eCity of Refuge\u003c\/em\u003e returns with a startling novel of race, violence, and identity. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe year is 1855. Blackface minstrelsy is the most popular form of entertainment in a nation about to be torn apart by the battle over slavery. Henry Sims, a fugitive slave and a brilliant musician, has escaped to Philadelphia, where he lives by his wits and earns money performing on the street. He is befriended by James Douglass—leader of the Virginia Harmonists, a minstrel troupe struggling to compete with dozens of similar ensembles—who senses that Henry's skill and magnetism could restore his show's sagging fortunes. The problem is that black performers are not allowed to appear onstage, even in Philadelphia. Together the two concoct a dangerous masquerade to protect Henry's identity, and he creates a sensation in his first appearances with the Harmonists. Yet even as the troupe's fortunes begin to improve, a brutal slave hunter named Tull Burton has been employed by Henry's former master to track down the runaway and retrieve him, dead or alive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Free State\u003c\/em\u003e is both a riveting chase novel and a searing parable of liberty and its costs. Charged with narrative tension and unforgettable characters, \u003cem\u003eA Free State\u003c\/em\u003e is a thrilling work by a novelist at the height of his powers.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“Informed by history of a reviled and forgotten idiom, loving scholarship about the banjo, and the very passport to freedom of body and spirit, this beautiful writing finds echoes in conflicts that persist-envy, imitation, injustice, brutality, inequality-and ultimately offers hope. I urge you to read it for yourself.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eElvis Costello, NYPL Book Recommendation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Piazza, an authority on jazz, blues, and bluegrass, includes fascinating nuggets of musical history and period detail… While the book strives to be both a literary thriller and a meditation on the complexities and contradictions of America’s cultural heritage, its pleasures are mostly those of the well-paced page-turner.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“This trim historical fiction, set in 1855, has all the components of a thrilling pursuit adventure. But the action of \u003ci\u003eA Free State\u003c\/i\u003e conceals a deeper purpose, which is to probe, through the medium of 19th Century minstrelsy, elaborate contradictions in the antebellum psyche.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAtlanta Journal-Constitution\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“African-American music celebrates individual expression but never lets listeners forget the injustices that have been perpetrated against racial minorities. That tension has generated decades of stirring music; in Tom Piazza’s hands, it produces moving fiction, as well.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eChapter 16\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Piazza’s novel vividly depicts a cultural phenomenon through Henry’s harrowing journey.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Tom Piazza’s new novel is a crisply told tale of race relations in Philadelphia a few years before the Civil War, one that brings into sharp relief the tensions that beset Northern society even as it was about to go to war to rid the nation of slavery.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Once I’d begun reading Tom Piazza’s \u003ci\u003eA Free State\u003c\/i\u003e, I couldn’t leave my chair. It combines bite-your-nails tension with deeply felt evocations of the brutalities of slavery, the perplexities of racial masquerading and the transcendent joys of making music. Piazza is unerringly accurate on both 19th-century voices and 19th-century sensibilities, but he’s got a 21st-century esthetic: at the end of the novel he executes a swerve so bold-and that’s all I’m telling-it’ll take your breath away.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDavid Gates\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Once I’d begun reading \u003ci\u003eA Free State\u003c\/i\u003e, I couldn’t leave my chair. It combines bite-your-nails tension with deeply felt evocations of the brutalities of slavery, the perplexities of racial masquerading and the transcendent joys of making music. At the end he executes a swerve so bold, it’ll take your breath away.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDavid Gates\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A thoughtful examination of the intertwining of race and culture—as well as a truly scary portrait of a genuine psychopath.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Informed by the history of a reviled and forgotten idiom, loving scholarship about the banjo, and the very passport to freedom of body and spirit, this beautiful writing finds echoes in conflicts that persist—envy, imitation, injustice, brutality, inequality—and ultimately offers hope. I urge you to read it for yourself.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eElvis Costello, Omnivoracious\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAdvance Praise for A FREE STATE: \u003c\/strong\u003e          “This rich novel about minstrelsy, slavery, and the dream of escape shows that our demons and our angels haven’t changed much. But the portrait of the struggle is so insightful that it becomes its own strong vision of hope.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eZachary Lazar, author of I Pity the Poor Immigrant and Sway\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[\u003ci\u003eA Free State\u003c\/i\u003e] has great kinetic energy, a gripping central narrative, and a host of indelible characters. And, in the current age of identity politics, it speaks to the prevailing cultural obsession with ‘authenticity’ by exposing the fragility of that very notion. A hugely rewarding novel.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMonica Ali, author of Brick Lane\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A page-turning novel about real times that are stranger than fiction.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44888728273125,"sku":"NP9780062284129","price":25.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780062284129.jpg?v=1730229712","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/a-free-state-a-novel-isbn-9780062284129","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}