'[A]n extraordinary book a work of staggering virtuosity. With its publication a giant world of literature has just grown twice as tall.'--Newsday
From Ralph Ellison--author of the classic novel of African-American experience Invisible Man--the long-awaited second novel. Here is the master of American vernacular--the rhythms of jazz and gospel and ordinary speech--at the height of his powers telling a powerful evocative tale of a prodigal of the twentieth century.
'Tell me what happened while there's still time' demands the dying Senator Adam Sunraider to the itinerate Negro preacher whom he calls Daddy Hickman. As a young man Sunraider was Bliss an orphan taken in by Hickman and raised to be a preacher like himself. Bliss's history encompasses the joys of young southern boyhood; bucolic days as a filmmaker lovemaking in a field in the Oklahoma sun. And behind it all lies a mystery: how did this chosen child become the man who would deny everything to achieve his goals? Brilliantly crafted moving wise Juneteenth is the work of an American master.
