Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James (English) Paperback Book

Description: Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James One of TIMEs 100 Best Fantasy Books of All TimeWinner of the L.A. Times Ray Bradbury Prize Finalist for the 2019 National Book Award The New York Times Bestseller Named a Best Book of 2019 by The Wall Street Journal, TIME, NPR, GQ, Vogue, and The Washington Post "A fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made." --Neil Gaiman "Gripping, action-packed....The literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times The epic novel from the Man Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings In the stunning first novel in Marlon Jamess Dark Star trilogy, myth, fantasy, and history come together to explore what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child. Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: "He has a nose," people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard. As Tracker follows the boys scent--from one ancient city to another; into dense forests and across deep rivers--he and the band are set upon by creatures intent on destroying them. As he struggles to survive, Tracker starts to wonder: Who, really, is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And perhaps the most important questions of all: Who is telling the truth, and who is lying? Drawing from African history and mythology and his own rich imagination, Marlon James has written a novel unlike anything thats come before it: a saga of breathtaking adventure thats also an ambitious, involving read. Defying categorization and full of unforgettable characters, Black Leopard, Red Wolf is both surprising and profound as it explores the fundamentals of truth, the limits of power, and our need to understand them both. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Marlon James was born in Jamaica in 1970. He is the author of the New York Times-bestseller Black Leopard, Red Wolf, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction in 2019. His novel A Brief History of Seven Killings won the 2015 Man Booker Prize. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction, and the Minnesota Book Award. It was also a New York Times Notable Book. James is also the author of The Book of Night Women, which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction and an NAACP Image Award. His first novel, John Crows Devil, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and was a New York Times Editors Choice. James divides his time between Minnesota and New York. Review Praise for Black Leopard, Red Wolf: "Gripping, action-packed… The literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe — filled with dizzying, magpie references to old movies and recent TV, ancient myths and classic comic books, and fused into something new and startling by his gifts for language and sheer inventiveness." —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times"No novel this year was as intoxicated by the pleasures and possibilities of storytelling as this bloody, bawdy, profane, deliriously overstuffed work of high fantasy. The first part of a planned trilogy, Marlon Jamess book already boasts more swagger and invention than most multivolume epics dragging toward their 10th installment." —The Wall Street Journal, Best Books of 2019 "The first volume of a promised trilogy, a fabulist reimagining of Africa, with inevitable echoes of Tolkien, George R.R. Martin and Black Panther, but highly original, its language surging with power, its imagination all-encompassing. . . . Marlon is a writer who must be read." —Salman Rushdie, TIME "James visions dont jettison you from reality so much as they trap you in his mad-genius, mercurial mind. . . . Drenched in African myth and folklore, and set in an astonishingly realized pre-colonized sub-Saharan region, Black Leopard crawls with creatures and erects kingdoms unlike any Ive read. . . . This is a revolutionary book." —Entertainment Weekly "Marlon James is one of those novelists who arent afraid to give a performance, to change the states of language from viscous to gushing to grand, to get all the way inside the people hes created... [Black Leopard, Red Wolf] looks like another great, big tale of death, murder and mystery but more mystically fantastical... Not only does this book come with a hefty cast of characters (like Seven Killings), there are also shape shifters, fairies, trolls, and, apparently, a map. The map might be handy. But it might be the opposite of why you come to James—to get lost in him." —The New York Times "Fantasy fiction gets a shot of adrenaline." —Newsday "Stand aside, Beowulf. Theres a new epic hero slashing his way into our hearts, and we may never get all the blood off our hands. . . . James is clear-cutting space for a whole new kingdom. Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the first spectacular volume of a planned trilogy, rises up from the mists of time, glistening like viscera. James has spun an African fantasy as vibrant, complex and haunting as any Western mythology, and nobody who survives reading this book will ever forget it. That thunder you hear is the jealous rage of Olympian gods. . . . Oceans Eleven has got nothing on this ensemble." —Washington Post "Black Leopard, Red Wolf is bawdy (OK, filthy), lyrical, poignant, violent (sometimes hyperviolent), riotous, funny (filthily hilarious), complex, mysterious, and always under tight and exquisite control…A world that is both fresh and beautifully realized….Absolutely brilliant." —LA Times "James is a professed fantasy nerd, so Black Leopard, Red Wolf will certainly appeal to fans of all the well-acknowledged authors with at least two initials — George R.R. Martin, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, etc. But if youve read James 2014 novel A Brief History of Seven Killings (decidedly not a sci-fi or fantasy book but a 700-page world-building epic about the attempted assassination of Bob Marley), youll drag yourself to the midnight queue to buy Black Leopard regardless of the whole Game of Thrones selling point." —Huffington Post "Black Leopard, Red Wolf is the kind of novel I never realized I was missing until I read it. A dangerous, hallucinatory, ancient Africa, which becomes a fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made, with language as powerful as Angela Carters. Its as deep and crafty as Gene Wolfe, bloodier than Robert E. Howard, and all Marlon James. Its something very new that feels old, in the best way. I cannot wait for the next installment." —Neil Gaiman "This book begins like a fever dream and merges into world upon world of deadly fairy tales rich with political magic. Black Leopard, Red Wolf is a fabulous cascade of storytelling. Sink right in. I guarantee you will be swept downstream." —Louise Erdrich "The novel teems with nightmares: devils, witches, giants, shape-shifters, haunted woods, magic portals. Its terrifying, sensual, hard to follow—but somehow indelible, too." —Vogue "Black Leopard, Red Wolf aims to be an event, and to counter the dominant impression of the genre it inhabits. . . . Black Leopard delivers some genre-specific satisfactions: the fight scenes are choreographed with comic-book wit . . . But it deliberately upends others. When I first saw the news that James was writing a fantasy trilogy, I had assumed that, after reaching the pinnacle of critical acclaim, with the Booker, he was pivoting to the land of the straightforward best-seller. . . . Instead, hed written not just an African fantasy novel but an African fantasy novel that is literary and labyrinthine to an almost combative degree." —The New Yorker "Hes produced a sprawling fantasy novel set in a dark-age Africa of witches, spirits, dazzling imperial citadels and impenetrable forests. In a genre dominated by imagery derived from the European middle ages, Black Leopard, Red Wolf feels new and exciting." —Wall Street Journal "A miracle... If Charles R. Saunders Imaro series opened the door to new ways of telling epic fantasy, and N.K. Jemisins Inheritance trilogy leapt over the threshold, then Marlon James Black Leopard, Red Wolf just ripped the whole damn door off its hinges." —Tor "A sprawling, epic fantasy... Fuses mythology, fantasy, and African history into a sensual, psychological triumph." —Esquire "Like the best fantasy, like the best literary fiction, like the best art period, Black Leopard, Red Wolf is uncanny." —Boston Globe "Black Leopard, Red Wolf [will] surely redefine fantasy for many years to come." —Houston Chronicle"A standard-bearer for future fantasies." —Minneapolis Star Tribune "This is the kind of immersive fantasy saga that develops a devoted following, an impressive display of inspired storytelling thats only just getting started." —San Francisco Chronicle "Perhaps no other contemporary fiction writer takes such risks and uses such provocative, sensual descriptions as James (who masterfully mixes in smells and sounds as well as sights to build a world)." —Interview Magazine "What marks Jamess tale as his own is the wonder evoked through descriptive, unrelenting prose along with a focus on a distinct mythology cobbled from history and folk tale. The propulsive narrative has already been optioned by Michael B Jordan, so expect to see this one coming to screens fairly soon." —The Guardian "James sensual, beautifully rendered prose and sweeping, precisely detailed narrative cast their own transfixing spell upon the reader. He not only brings a fresh multicultural perspective to a grand fantasy subgenre, but also broadens the genres psychological and metaphysical possibilities. If this first volume is any indication, James trilogy could become one of the most talked-about and influential adventure epics since George R.R. Martins A Song of Ice and Fire was transformed into Game of Thrones." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Review Quote Praise for Black Leopard, Red Wolf : "Gripping, action-packed... The literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe -- filled with dizzying, magpie references to old movies and recent TV, ancient myths and classic comic books, and fused into something new and startling by his gifts for language and sheer inventiveness." -- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "No novel this year was as intoxicated by the pleasures and possibilities of storytelling as this bloody, bawdy, profane, deliriously overstuffed work of high fantasy. The first part of a planned trilogy, Marlon Jamess book already boasts more swagger and invention than most multivolume epics dragging toward their 10th installment." -- The Wall Street Journal, Best Books of 2019 "The first volume of a promised trilogy, a fabulist reimagining of Africa, with inevitable echoes of Tolkien, George R.R. Martin and Black Panther, but highly original, its language surging with power, its imagination all-encompassing. . . . Marlon is a writer who must be read." -- Salman Rushdie, TIME "James visions dont jettison you from reality so much as they trap you in his mad-genius, mercurial mind. . . . Drenched in African myth and folklore, and set in an astonishingly realized pre-colonized sub-Saharan region, Black Leopard crawls with creatures and erects kingdoms unlike any Ive read. . . . This is a revolutionary book." --Entertainment Weekly "Marlon James is one of those novelists who arent afraid to give a performance, to change the states of language from viscous to gushing to grand, to get all the way inside the people hes created... [ Black Leopard, Red Wolf ] looks like another great, big tale of death, murder and mystery but more mystically fantastical... Not only does this book come with a hefty cast of characters (like Seven Killings ), there are also shape shifters, fairies, trolls, and, apparently, a map. The map might be handy. But it might be the opposite of why you come to James--to get lost in him." -- The New York Times "Fantasy fiction gets a shot of adrenaline." --Newsday "Stand aside, Beowulf. Theres a new epic hero slashing his way into our hearts, and we may never get all the blood off our hands. . . . James is clear-cutting space for a whole new kingdom. Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the first spectacular volume of a planned trilogy, rises up from the mists of time, glistening like viscera. James has spun an African fantasy as vibrant, complex and haunting as any Western mythology, and nobody who survives reading this book will ever forget it. That thunder you hear is the jealous rage of Olympian gods. . . . Oceans Eleven has got nothing on this ensemble." -- Washington Post "Black Leopard, Red Wolf is bawdy (OK, filthy), lyrical, poignant, violent (sometimes hyperviolent), riotous, funny (filthily hilarious), complex, mysterious, and always under tight and exquisite control...A world that is both fresh and beautifully realized....Absolutely brilliant." -- LA Times "James is a professed fantasy nerd, so Black Leopard, Red Wolf will certainly appeal to fans of all the well-acknowledged authors with at least two initials -- George R.R. Martin, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, etc. But if youve read James 2014 novel A Brief History of Seven Killings (decidedly not a sci-fi or fantasy book but a 700-page world-building epic about the attempted assassination of Bob Marley), youll drag yourself to the midnight queue to buy Black Leopard regardless of the whole Game of Thrones selling point." -- Huffington Post "Black Leopard, Red Wolf is the kind of novel I never realized I was missing until I read it. A dangerous, hallucinatory, ancient Africa, which becomes a fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made, with language as powerful as Angela Carters. Its as deep and crafty as Gene Wolfe, bloodier than Robert E. Howard, and all Marlon James. Its something very new that feels old, in the best way. I cannot wait for the next installment." -- Neil Gaiman "This book begins like a fever dream and merges into world upon world of deadly fairy tales rich with political magic. Black Leopard, Red Wolf is a fabulous cascade of storytelling. Sink right in. I guarantee you will be swept downstream." -- Louise Erdrich "The novel teems with nightmares: devils, witches, giants, shape-shifters, haunted woods, magic portals. Its terrifying, sensual, hard to follow -- but somehow indelible, too." -- Vogue " Black Leopard, Red Wolf aims to be an event, and to counter the dominant impression of the genre it inhabits . . . . Black Leopard delivers some genre-specific satisfactions: the fight scenes are choreographed with comic-book wit . . . But it deliberately upends others. When I first saw the news that James was writing a fantasy trilogy, I had assumed that, after reaching the pinnacle of critical acclaim, with the Booker, he was pivoting to the land of the straightforward best-seller. . . . Instead, hed written not just an African fantasy novel but an African fantasy novel that is literary and labyrinthine to an almost combative degree." --The New Yorker "Hes produced a sprawling fantasy novel set in a dark-age Africa of witches, spirits, dazzling imperial citadels and impenetrable forests. In a genre dominated by imagery derived from the European middle ages, Black Leopard, Red Wolf feels new and exciting." --Wall Street Journal "A miracle... If Charles R. Saunders Imaro series opened the door to new ways of telling epic fantasy, and N.K. Jemisins Inheritance trilogy leapt over the threshold, then Marlon James Black Leopard, Red Wolf just ripped the whole damn door off its hinges." -- Tor "A sprawling, epic fantasy... Fuses mythology, fantasy, and African history into a sensual, psychological triumph." -- Esquire "Like the best fantasy, like the best literary fiction, like the best art period, Black Leopard, Red Wolf is uncanny." --Boston Globe " Black Leopard, Red Wolf [will] surely redefine fantasy for many years to come." --Houston Chronicle "A standard-bearer for future fantasies." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune "This is the kind of immersive fantasy saga that develops a devoted following, an impressive display of inspired storytelling thats only just getting started." -- San Francisco Chronicle "Perhaps no other contemporary fiction writer takes such risks and uses such provocative, sensual descriptions as James (who masterfully mixes in smells and sounds as well as sights to build a world)." --Interview Magazine "What marks Jamess tale as his own is the wonder evoked through descriptive, unrelenting prose along with a focus on a distinct mythology cobbled from history and folk tale. The propulsive narrative has already been optioned by Michael B Jordan, so expect to see this one coming to screens fairly soon." --The Guardian "James sensual, beautifully rendered prose and sweeping, precisely detailed narrative cast their own transfixing spell upon the reader. He not only brings a fresh multicultural perspective to a grand fantasy subgenre, but also broadens the genres psychological and metaphysical possibilities. If this first volume is any indication, James trilogy could become one of the most talked-about and influential adventure epics since George R.R. Martins A Song of Ice and Fire was transformed into Game of Thrones. " -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Excerpt from Book ONE T he child is dead. There is nothing left to know. I hear there is a queen in the south who kills the man who brings her bad news. So when I give word of the boys death, do I write my own death with it? Truth eats lies just as the crocodile eats the moon, and yet my witness is the same today as it will be tomorrow. No, I did not kill him. Though I may have wanted him dead. Craved for it the way a glutton craves goat flesh. Oh, to draw a bow and fire it through his black heart and watch it explode black blood, and to watch his eyes for when they stop blinking, when they look but stop seeing, and to listen for his voice croaking and hear his chest heave in a death rattle saying, Look, my wretched spirit leaves this most wretched of bodies, and to smile at such tidings and dance at such a loss. Yes, I glut at the conceit of it. But no, I did not kill him. Bi oju ri enu a pam o. Not everything the eye sees should be spoken by the mouth. This cell is larger than the one before. I smell the dried blood of executed men; I hear their ghosts still screaming. Your bread carries weevils, and your water carries the piss of ten and two guards and the goat they fuck for sport. Shall I give you a story? I am just a man who some have called a wolf. The child is dead. I know the old woman brings you different news. Call him murderer, she says. Even though my only sorrow is that I did not kill her. The redheaded one said the childs head was infested with devils. If you believe in devils. I believe in bad blood. You look like a man who has never shed blood. And yet blood sticks between your fingers. A boy you circumcised, a young girl too small for your big . . . Look how that thrills you. Look at you. I will give you a story. It begins with a Leopard. And a witch. Grand Inquisitor. Fetish priest. No, you will not call for the guards. My mouth might say too much before they club it shut. Regard yourself. A man with two hundred cows who delights in a patch of boy skin and the koo of a girl who should be no mans woman. Because that is what you seek, is it not? A dark little thing that cannot be found in thirty sacks of gold or two hundred cows or two hundred wives. Something that you have lost--no, it was taken from you. That light, you see it and you want it--not light from the sun, or from the thunder god in the night sky, but light with no blemish, light in a boy who has no knowledge of women, a girl you bought for marriage, not because you need a wife, for you have two hun- dred cows, but a wife you can tear open, because you search for it in holes, black holes, wet holes, undergrown holes for the light that vampires look for, and you will have it, you will dress it up in ceremony, circumcision for the boy, consummation for the girl, and when they shed blood, and spit, and sperm and piss you leave it all on your skin, to go to the iroko tree and use any hole you find. The child is dead, and so is everyone. I walked for days, through swarms of flies in the Blood Swamp and skin- slicing rocks in salt plains, through day and night. I walked as far south as Omororo and did not know or care. Men detained me as a beggar, took me for a thief, tortured me as a traitor, and when news of the dead child reached your kingdom, arrested me as a murderer. Did you know there were five men in my cell? Four nights ago. The scarf around my neck belongs to the only man who left on two feet. He might even see from his right eye again one day. The other four. Make record as I have said it. Old men say night is a fool. It will not judge, but whatever comes it will not warn. The first came for my bed. I woke up to my own death rattle, and it was a man, crushing my throat. Shorter than an Ogo, but taller than a horse. Smelled like he butchered a goat. Grabbed me by the neck and hoisted me up in the air while the other men kept quiet. I tried to pull his fingers but a devil was in his grip. Kicking his chest was kicking stone. He held me up as if admiring a precious jewel. I kneed him in the jaw so hard his teeth sliced his tongue. He dropped me, and I charged for his balls like a bull. He fell, I grabbed his knife, razor sharp, and cut his throat. The second grabbed for my arms, but I was naked and slippery. The knife-- my knife--I rammed it between his ribs and heard his heart pop. The third man danced with his feet and fists, like a night fly, whistling like a mosquito. Made a fist I did, then stuck two fingers out, like rabbit ears. Jabbed his left eye in the quick and pulled the whole thing out. He screamed. Watching him bawl on the floor, searching for his eye, I forgot the other two men. The fat one behind me, he swung, I ducked, he tripped, he fell, I jumped, I grabbed the rock that was my pillow and bashed his head until his face smelled fleshy. The last man was a boy. He cried. He was too shaken to beg for his life. I told him to be a man in his next life, for he is less than a worm in this one, and flung the knife right into his neck. His blood hit the floor before his knees. I let the half-blind man live because we need stories in order to live, dont we, priest? Inquisitor. I dont know what to call you. But these are not your men. Good. Then you have no death song to sing to their widows. You have come for a story and I am moved to talk, so the gods have smiled on both of us. There was a merchant in the Purple City, who said he lost his wife. She went missing with five gold rings, ten and two pairs of earrings, twenty and two bracelets, and ten and nine anklets. It is said you have a nose for finding what would rather stay lost, he said. I was near twenty in years, and long ban- ished from my fathers house. The man thought I was some kind of hound, but I said yes, it has been said that I have a nose. He threw me his wifes undergarment. Her trail was so faint it was almost dead. Maybe she knew that one day men would come hunting, for she had a hut in three villages and no one could tell which one she lived in. In each house was a girl who looked exactly like her and even answered to her name. The girl in the third house invited me in and pointed to a stool for me to sit. She asked if I was thirsty and reached for a jug of masuku beer before I said yes. Let me remind you that my eyes are ordinary but it has been said that I have a nose. So when she brought over the mug of beer I had already smelled the poison she put in it, a wifes poison called cobra spit that loses taste once you mix it with water. She gave me the mug and I took it, grabbed her hand, and bent it behind her back. I put the mug to her lips and forced it between her teeth. Her tears ran down and I took away the mug. She took me to her mistress, who lived in a hut by the river. My husband beat me so hard that my child fell out, the mistress said. I have five gold rings, ten and two pairs of earrings, twenty and two bracelets, and ten and nine anklets, which I will give you, as well as a night in my bed. I took four anklets, and I took her back to her husband because I wanted his money more than her jewelry. Then I told her to have the woman from the third hut make him masuku beer. The second story. My father came home one night smelling of a fisher woman. She was on him, and so was the wood of a Bawo board. And the blood of a man not my father. He played a game against a binga, a Bawo master, and lost. The binga demanded his winnings, and my father grabbed the Bawo board and smashed it on the masters forehead. He said he was at an inn far away so that he could drink, tickle women, and play Bawo. My father beat the man until he stopped moving and then left the bar. But no stink of sweat was on him, not much dust, no beer on his breath, nothing. He had not been in a bar but in the den of an opium monk. So Father came into the house and shouted for me to come from the grain shed I was living in, for by now he had banished me from the house. "Come, my son. Sit and play Bawo with me," he said. The board was on the floor, many balls missing. Too many for a good game. But my father was looking to win, not to play. Surely you know Bawo, priest; if not I must explain it to you. Four rows of eight holes on the board, each player gets two rows. Thirty and two seeds for each player, but we had fewer than that, I cannot remember how much. Each player puts six seeds in the nyumba hole, but my father placed eight. I would have said, Father, are you playing the game southern style, eight instead of six? But my father never speaks when he can punch, and he has punched me for less. Every time I placed a seed he would say, Capture and take my seeds. But he was hungry for drink and asked for palm wine. My mother brought him water, and he pulled her by the hair, slapped her twice, and said, Your skin will forget these marks by sunset. My mother would not give him the pleasure of her tears, so she left and came back with wine. I smelled for poison, and would have let it be. But while he was beating my mother for using witchcraft to either slow her ag- ing or hurry his, he missed the game. I sowed my seeds, two to a hole right to the end of the board, and captured his seeds. This did not please my father. "You took the game to mtaji phase," he said. "No, we are just beginning," I said. "How dare you speak to me with disrespect? Call me Father when you talk to me," he said. I said nothing and blocked him on the board. He had no seeds left in his inner row and could not move. "You have cheated," he said. "There are more than thirty and two seeds on your board." I said, "Either you are blind from wine or you cannot count. You sowed seeds, and I captured them. I sowed seeds all along my row and built a wall that you have no Details ISBN0735220182 Author Marlon James Year 2020 ISBN-10 0735220182 ISBN-13 9780735220188 Format Paperback Pages 640 Series The Dark Star Trilogy Language English Series Number 1 Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2020-02-04 NZ Release Date 2020-02-04 US Release Date 2020-02-04 UK Release Date 2020-02-04 Illustrations 5 MAPS T/O Publication Date 2020-02-04 Publisher Penguin Putnam Inc Imprint Riverhead Books,U.S. Replaces 9780525542773 DEWEY 813.6 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:126600157;

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