Blueschild Baby
A Novel
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · March 12, 2019
A searing chronicle of the life of a young ex-convict and heroin addict in 1960’s Harlem, an unsparing portrait of a man who couldn’t free himself from the horrors of addiction Blueschild Baby takes place during the summer of 1967—the summer of race riots all across the nation; the Summer of Love in the Haight Ashbury; the summer of Marines dying near Con Thien, across the world in Vietnam—but the novel illuminates the contours of a more private hell: the angry desperation of a heroin addict who returns to his home in Harlem after being in prison.
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- Who it’s for
- A gritty, immersive read with a sharp edge and a strong pull for the curious.
- Genres
- Black Urban Fiction, Literary Fiction, Psychological Fiction
- Published
- HarperCollins, March 12, 2019
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A searing chronicle of the life of a young ex-convict and heroin addict in 1960’s Harlem, an unsparing portrait of a man who couldn’t free himself from the horrors of addiction Blueschild Baby takes place during the summer of 1967—the summer of race riots all across the nation; the Summer of Love in the Haight Ashbury; the summer of Marines dying near Con Thien, across the world in Vietnam—but the novel illuminates the contours of a more private hell: the angry desperation of a heroin addict who returns to his home in Harlem after being in prison.
Continue reading
First published in 1970, this frankly autobiographical novel was a revelation, a stunning depiction of a marginal figure, marked literally and figuratively by his drug addiction and navigating a predatory underground of junkies and hustlers—and named George Cain, like his author. Now with a new preface by acclaimed writer Leslie Jamison, this is an unvarnished conjuring of the tyranny of dependence: its desperation, its degradation, its rage and rebellion; the fragile, unsettled, occasional shards of hope it permits; the strange joys of being alive and young and lost and hooked and full of feverish determination anyway.
Hard Edges
A gritty, immersive read with a sharp edge and a strong pull for the curious.
Come here for
- edgy urban texture
- author-following curiosity
Expect
- sustained narrative momentum
- Black historical fiction with urban-fiction energy
Where it sits
| Black Urban Fiction | 53% |
|---|---|
| Literary Fiction | 43% |
| Psychological Fiction | 37% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Short Story Anthologies
- Literary Fiction
- Psychological Fiction
- Contemporary Romance
Show all 8 publisher categories
- Romance Collections
- Short Stories (Single Author)
- Women's Fiction
- Black Women's Fiction
- Authors
- George Cain, Leslie Jamison
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- March 12, 2019
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Short Story Anthologies