{"title":"Books by Gayl Jones","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780349016887","title":"Butter","description":"\u003cp\u003e'A literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers' Tayari Jones, author of AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Gayl Jones is a literary legend' - Yara Rodrigues Fowler, author of THERE ARE MORE THINGS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Her prose is intricate, mesmerizing, and endlessly inventive and subversive' Deesha Philyaw, author of THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGayl Jones's long career began with her blistering  1975 debut, \u003ci\u003eCorregidora\u003c\/i\u003e, which was edited  by Toni Morrison, and she is increasingly  recognised as one of the great literary writers  of the twentieth century. In this new collection of short fiction, Jones's  unique talents are displayed in a range of settings  and styles, from the hyper-realist to the mystical, in  novella-length stories, intricate multi-part narratives  and in compelling fragments. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEndlessly inventive, challenging and surprising,  Jones writes about our diverse world. Her characters are spies, photographers, baristas, cartoonists  and revolutionaries; her settings are historical and  contemporary, in Europe and the Americas. With  sharp observation, wit and poignancy, Jones explores  complex identities and unorthodox longings. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Jones's writing powerfully blends narrative  and lyricism . . . Her imagination seems to  thrive on outstripping one's expectations' Margo Jefferson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Every Jones publication is a major event, but this one is particularly precious . . . Jones's settings, which span time and geography, vary as much as the identities of her protagonists, which include women and men, Black, brown, and Indigenous people, artists and spies. The common threads are creativity and devastating insight' \u003ci\u003eOprah Daily\u003c\/i\u003e, 'The Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2023'\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685714436469,"sku":"9780349016894","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":43128919195826,"sku":"9780349016887","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349016894.jpg?v=1792598875"},{"product_id":"9780349015248","title":"Palmares","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA 2022 PULITZER PRIZE  FINALIST\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A once-in-a-lifetime work of literature, the kind that changes your understanding of the world' Yara Rodriguez Fowler, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e 'Astonishingly rich in character and incident, filled with magic and mystery' \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 'Intricate, mesmerizing and endlessly inventive and subversive' Deesha Philyaw, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Secret Lives of Church Ladies\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A story woven with extraordinary complexity, depth and skill', Robert Jones, Jr, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Prophets\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAN EPIC TALE OF LOVE AND LIBERATION SET IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY COLONIAL BRAZIL\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom plantation to plantation, Almeyda, a young slave girl, hears whispers, rumours of Palmares, a hidden settlement where fugitive slaves live free. But can this promised land exist? And what price is paid for 'freedom'?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003ePalmares,\u003c\/i\u003e Gayl Jones brings to life a world full of unforgettable characters, reimagining extraordinary historical events and combining them with mythology and magic. The result is a sweeping saga spanning a quarter of a century. Of Gayl Jones, the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker \u003c\/i\u003enoted, '[Her] great achievement is to reckon with both history and interiority, and to collapse the boundary between them.' Like nothing else before it, \u003ci\u003ePalmares\u003c\/i\u003e embodies this gift.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201689190578,"sku":"9780349015248","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349015248_d8a72ab7-f70e-4219-9a49-64c7a0c29fb7.jpg?v=1786013445"},{"product_id":"9780349012186","title":"The Healing","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTHE FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers' TAYARI JONES\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'The novel's richness lies in its entertaining meandering, and the vitality of its spoken rhythms' MAYA JAGGI, \u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A moving affirmation of forgiveness and trust . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Healing\u003c\/i\u003e should be cause for hope, sustenance and even celebration' VALERIE SAYERS, \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHarlan Jane Eagleton is a faith healer, travelling to small towns, converting sceptics, restoring minds and bodies. But before that she was a rock star's manager and race-track gambler. She's had a fling with her rock star's ex-husband and along the way she's somehow lost her own husband - a medical anthropologist now travelling with a medicine woman in Africa. Harlan tells her story from the end backwards, drawing us ever deeper into her world and the mystery at the heart of her tale - the story of her first healing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201699053746,"sku":"9780349012186","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349012186_15379060-123c-4ff5-9546-ba02077a0c78.jpg?v=1786014210"},{"product_id":"9780349016863","title":"The Birdcatcher","description":"\u003cp\u003eA FINALIST FOR THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A fascinating meditation on Black female creativity from the author of \u003ci\u003eCorregidora \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003ePalmares . . . \u003c\/i\u003eVivid characters shimmer through the pages' Suzi Feay, GUARDIAN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I am living on the white-washed island of Ibiza with my friend Catherine Shuger, a sculptor who has been declared legally insane, and her husband, Ernest. Standing on the terrace, sheltered in the smell of oranges and eucalyptus, washed in sunlight, you'd swear this was a paradise. But to tell the truth the place is full of dangers. You see, Catherine sometimes tries to kill her husband. It has been this way for years . . . My name's Amanda Wordlaw. Wonderful name for a writer, isn't it? . . . I guess I'm sort of a choice companion for the Shugers - professional watcher and listener that I am.  It's like they need someone else to witness the shit, the spectacle they make of themselves.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Gayl Jones constructs a novel that is part mystery, part thriller, and wholly captivating . . . Jones is an outstanding writer . . . A shining segment of the American literary canon has been restored' Kate Webb, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'With the plush scenery of a travelogue, the misshapen soul of a noir and the anarchic spirit of a trickster tale, this novel revolves around three Black American expatriates . . . Catherine is suspicious of Amanda's intentions toward her husband, but, in Jones's fearsome, fractured narrative, her potential for violence seems no more alarming than anything else that might befall these social outsiders' NEW YORKER (Best books of 2022)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43206048612530,"sku":"9780349016863","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349016863_9966ccd0-eb33-4ae8-adc0-57ee5f0ce2a2.jpg?v=1786013499"},{"product_id":"9780349016832","title":"Song for Almeyda and Song for Anninho","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBy the acclaimed writer of \u003ci\u003ePalmares\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eCorregidora\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen the Portuguese attack Palmares, Brazil's last fugitive slave enclave, Almeyda and her husband are separated as they flee from the destruction. Amid the flight and re-enslavement of the inhabitants, their narrative emerges.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwo powerful, epic poems give voice to the lovers: Almeyda's passionate lament for Anninho, whom she believes has been killed, is combined with his response as he searches for her. Their story is one of longing - for each other, for freedom - and for revolution.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I want to stay here, Anninho.'\u003cbr\u003e'There won't be any way\u003cbr\u003eyou can stay here.\u003cbr\u003eWhen they catch us,\u003cbr\u003ethey'll take you back.'\u003cbr\u003e'The men they kill,\u003cbr\u003ethe women they take back.'\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43605754216626,"sku":"9780349016832","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349016832_e0ccbeae-5fed-4a66-bb18-0acaea05fb98.jpg?v=1786013497"},{"product_id":"9780349016917","title":"The Unicorn Woman","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A literary giant' TAYARI JONES\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA richly imaginative and moving new novel from the Pulitzer finalist and acclaimed author of \u003ci\u003eCorregidora\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA cook and tractor repairman, Buddy was known as Budweiser to his army pals because he's a wise guy. But underneath that surface, he's a man on a quest: looking for religion, looking for meaning, looking for love.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReturning from the Second World War not to a hero's welcome, but to the discrimination of the Jim Crow laws, Buddy stumbles across the Unicorn Woman, a carnival sideshow with a horn growing from her forehead, whose strange beauty he can't forget.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs he drifts across the South, from Kentucky to Memphis, Buddy encounters a dazzling array of almost mythic characters: circus barkers, topiary trimmers, landladies who provide shelter and plenty of advice for their all-Black clientele, proto feminists and bigots - dreaming all the while of the unforgettable Unicorn Woman herself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith her inimitable eye for beauty, tragedy and humour, Jones offers a rich, intriguing exploration of the Black imagination in a time of frustration and hope.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Her truth-telling, filled with beauty, tragedy, humour, and incisiveness, is unmatched' IMANI PERRY\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'\u003cb\u003eGayl Jones is enjoying a dazzling late-career renaissance' SUZI FEAY, TLS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Intricate, mesmerising and endlessly inventive' DEESHA PHILYAW\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685928280437,"sku":"9780349016931","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":44581683298482,"sku":"9780349016917","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349016931.jpg?v=1792599173"},{"product_id":"9780349019574","title":"Corregidora","description":"No novel about any Black woman could ever be the same after this' TONI MORRISONI dreamed with my eyes open. All the Corregidora women with narrow waists and high cheekbones and wide hips. All the Corregidora women dancing.    Blues singer Ursa is consumed by her hatred of Corregidora, the nineteenth-century slave master who fathered both her mother and grandmother. Charged with 'making generations' to bear witness to this legacy of abuse, Ursa must confront her family history after a fight with her husband leaves her unable to have children. Haunted by the ghosts of a Brazilian plantation, pained by the fractured relationships of her present, she slowly and firmly strikes her own terms with womanhood.   Upon publication in 1975, Corregidora was hailed as a masterpiece, winning acclaim from writers including James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and John Updike. Exploring themes such as race, sexuality and the long repercussions of slavery, this powerful novel paved the way for Beloved and The Colour Purple.   'Corregidora is the most brutally honest and painful revelation of what has occurred, and is occurring, in the souls of Black men and women' JAMES BALDWIN  'A literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers' TAYARI JONES 'An American writer with a powerful sense of vital inheritance, of history in the blood' JOHN UPDIKE, NEW YORKER","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54911774785909,"sku":"9780349019574","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349019574_470d6e7d-e129-4f65-90da-c36e85d3b9c7.jpg?v=1786013638"},{"product_id":"9780349012155","title":"Eva's Man","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A literary giant, and one of my absolute favourite writers' TAYARI JONES, AUTHOR OF \u003ci\u003eAN AMERICAN MARRIAGE\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'An American writer with a powerful sense of vital inheritance, of history in the blood' JOHN UPDIKE, \u003ci\u003eNEW YORKER\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Eva's silence, and her status here as legally insane, are eloquent testimony to the condition of being a woman in this man's world' \u003ci\u003eKIRKUS REVIEWS \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEva Medina Canada sits in her psychiatric ward, silent and unremorseful. She has murdered her lover and they want to know why. Her memories weave back and forth over encounters with the men in her life - the schoolboy who played doctors and nurses with a dirty popsicle stick; her mother's boyfriend; her cousin; her husband; a stranger on the bus. She's been propositioned and abused for as long as she can remember.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56286278353269,"sku":"9780349012155","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349012155_91d8af0c-4a47-4162-9e4e-ce235f045b36.jpg?v=1786014209"},{"product_id":"9780807019627","title":"The Unicorn Woman","description":"\u003cb\u003eFINALIST FOR THE 2025 PULITZER PRIZE IN FICTION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"One of our greatest living authors.\"—Lauren LeBlanc, The Boston Globe\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMarking a dramatic new direction for Jones, a riveting tale set in the Post WWII South, narrated by a Black soldier who returns to Jim Crow and searches for a mythical ideal\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSet in the early 1950s, this latest novel from Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Gayl Jones follows the witty but perplexing army veteran Buddy Ray Guy as he embodies the fate of Black soldiers who return, not in glory, but into their Jim Crow communities.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA cook and tractor repairman, Buddy was known as Budweiser to his army pals because he’s a wise guy. But underneath that surface, he is a true self-educated intellectual and a classic seeker: looking for religion, looking for meaning, looking for love.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs he moves around the south, from his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, primarily, to his second home of Memphis, Tennessee, he recalls his love affairs in post-war France and encounters with a variety of colorful characters and mythical prototypes: circus barkers, topiary trimmers, landladies who provide shelter and plenty of advice for their all-Black clientele, proto feminists, and bigots. The lead among these characters is, of course, The Unicorn Woman, who exists, but mostly lives in Bud’s private mythology.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJones offers a rich, intriguing exploration of Black (and Indigenous) people in a time and place of frustration, disappointment, and spiritual hope.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294840861045,"sku":"9780807019627","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780807019627_57bff191-591f-44c2-92c6-f0b9b2c3f4da.jpg?v=1786016099"},{"product_id":"9780807012949","title":"White Rat","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe acclaimed author’s first collection of stories, reissued to coincide with the paperback publication of her second and latest, \u003ci\u003eButter\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Gayl Jones’s work represents a watershed in American literature. From a literary standpoint, her form is impeccable . . . and as a Black woman writer, her truth-telling, filled with beauty, tragedy, humor, and incisiveness, is unmatched.”—Imani Perry\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGayl Jones has been described as one of the great literary writers of the 20th century and was recently a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. This collection of short fiction was her third book, originally edited and published by Toni Morrison in 1977, and is reissued now alongside her second collection, \u003ci\u003eButter\u003c\/i\u003e, in paperback for the first time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe collection contains 12 provocative tales that explore the emotional and mental terrain of a diverse cast of characters, from the innocent to the insane. In each, Jones displays her unflinching ability to dive into the most treacherous of psyches and circumstances: the title story examines the identity and relationship conundrums of a Black man who can pass for white, earning him the name “White Rat” as an infant; “The Women” follows a girl whose mother brings a line of female lovers to live in their home; “Jevata” details 18-year-old Freddy’s relationship with the 50-year-old title character; “The Coke Factory” tracks the thoughts of a mentally-handicapped adolescent abandoned by his mother; and “Asylum” focuses on a woman having a nervous breakdown, trying to protect her dignity and her private parts as she enters an institution.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn uncompromising prose, and dialect that veers from northern, educated tongues to down-home southern colloquialisms, Jones illuminates lives that society ignores, moving them to center stage.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56295005520245,"sku":"9780807012949","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780807012949_3ce1fda5-070f-47ef-8f94-d154f77f741c.jpg?v=1786016073"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-gayl-jones.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}