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4.0 

The Book of Harlan

By Bernice L. McFadden
The Book of Harlan by Bernice L. McFadden digital book - Fable

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Publisher Description

During WWII, two African American musicians are captured by the Nazis in Paris and imprisoned at the Buchenwald concentration camp.

“Simply miraculous . . . As her saga becomes ever more spellbinding, so does the reader’s astonishment at the magic she creates. This is a story about the triumph of the human spirit over bigotry, intolerance and cruelty, and at the center of The Book of Harlan is the restorative force that is music.” —Washington Post

“McFadden’s writing breaks the heart—and then heals it again. The perspective of a black man in a concentration camp is unique and harrowing and this is a riveting, worthwhile read.” —Toronto Star

The Book of Harlan opens with the courtship of Harlan’s parents and his 1917 birth in Macon, Georgia. After his prominent minister grandfather dies, Harlan and his parents move to Harlem, where he eventually becomes a professional musician. When Harlan and his best friend, trumpeter Lizard Robbins, are invited to perform at a popular cabaret in the Parisian enclave of Montmartre—affectionately referred to as “The Harlem of Paris” by black American musicians—Harlan jumps at the opportunity, convincing Lizard to join him.

But after the City of Light falls under Nazi occupation, Harlan and Lizard are thrown into Buchenwald—the notorious concentration camp in Weimar, Germany—irreparably changing the course of Harlan’s life. Based on exhaustive research and told in McFadden’s mesmeric prose, The Book of Harlan skillfully blends the stories of McFadden’s familial ancestors with those of real and imagined characters.

109 Reviews

4.0
“4.25 stars This book was just absolutely fantastic--which is really exciting to me, since it was not on my radar at all and was just a random pickup when I was browsing my local library. The Book of Harlan is a sprawling, textured, raw account of life as a black American throughout the twentieth century, from World War I and the Jazz Era and Great Depression and the Jim Crow south, to World War II and the Civil Rights movement, and everything in between. It is not only that though; it does not just focus on the facts of the history itself. It is instead the lived experience of this history. And in this way, it is so rich and deep with detail. I absolutely adore books that follow one family (and any associated friends or extended family) throughout the generations. I'm finding that this is a niche that I just cannot get enough of. And The Book of Harlan does this absolutely perfectly. We follow the life of our protagonist Harlan not at the beginning of his life, but from before his birth, in turn allowing us to watch the roots for his existence be laid; for us to be acquainted with the climate and circumstances he enters the world in. And we do this through very short yet very detailed chapters that all glide into each other. This book is, indeed, the elusive 'page-turner' all reviewers allude to. And, of course, the sections about the Holocaust and Harlan's imprisonment in Buchenwald, while surprisingly few, were horrifyingly gripping. Although this does lead me to my only gripe with the book, really: the fact that the cover and blurb both suggest that this will be the focal point of the book, when in actuality, a total of probably 30 solid pages are dedicated to chronicling this horrendous time. Really, it's fairer to describe it as just one of many life-shaping events that happens over the course of Harlan's life. What I did love was the commentary surrounding the Nazi occupation that this invited--specifically, how it was not just Jews who were rounded up and abused, tortured, and killed in the most horrendous ways imaginable, but anyone who did not fit Hitler's ideal. This included the homosexual; the disabled (mentally and/or physically); anyone mixed race; and, of course, anybody black. I also, it seems, sit in the minority with regards my thoughts towards the ending. I absolutely loved it. All in all, this book is a beautiful, culturally rich family saga--an ode to what it actually was to be a black American throughout the twentieth century. And I think it to be a disservice that this book is marketed as something else. *JUL 2024 EDIT* Increasing rating to 4.5 stars.”

About Bernice L. McFadden

BERNICE L. McFADDEN is the author of ten critically acclaimed novels including Sugar, Loving Donovan, Nowhere Is a Place, The Warmest December, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors’ Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012), Glorious, and The Book of Harlan (winner of a 2017 American Book Award and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction). She is a four-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of four awards from the BCALA. Praise Song for the Butterflies is her latest novel.

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