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The new story collection from John Edgar Wideman - acclaimed author of Philadelphia Fire and Brothers and Keepers, and winner of the 2017 Prix Femina Étranger - exploring subjects from the imagined to the historical and personal

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In this new short story collection, John Edgar Wideman blends the historical and the imaginary, the personal and the political, to invent complex, charged stories about love, death and struggle. With a cast of real and fictional characters as diverse as Frederick Douglass, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Wideman´s own family, it is a journey through the soul of America.

In ´JB & FD´ Wideman imagines conversations between white anti-slavery crusader John Brown and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. In ´Williamsburg Bridge´ a man contemplates his life as he sits on the edge of the bridge, meaning to jump. In ´Maps and Ledgers´ a brother and sister ponder their father´s killing of another man.

In these and the other stories in this collection, Wideman navigates an extraordinary range of subject and tone. He delivers individual narratives both emotionally precise and intellectually stimulating, and an extended meditation on family, history and loss. American Histories demonstrates a master at his absolute best.

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Laced together, the stories in American Histories read like an immense jazz riff . . . The acutely immersive world of American Histories is irresistible, and these profoundly moving stories will haunt you long after you´ve finished reading Colin Grant Guardian

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Wideman, John Edgar
John Edgar Wideman´s books include Writing to Save a Life, Philadelphia Fire, Brothers and Keepers, Fatheralong, Hoop Roots and Sent for You Yesterday. He is a MacArthur Fellow and has won the PEN/Faulkner Award twice and has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and National Book Award. In 2017, Wideman won the the Prix Femina Étranger for Writing to Save a Life. He divides his time between New York and France.

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