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The Book of Jamaica Audiobook
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""A truly excellent novel. . . . The morbidly fascinating little twists of human existence are all here: love, sex, life and death, beauty and horror—the works."" — Chicago Sun-Times
In The Book of Jamaica, Russell Banks explores the complexities of political life in the Caribbean and its ever-present racial conflicts.
His narrator, a thirty-five-year-old college professor from New Hampshire, goes to Jamaica to write a novel and soon becomes embroiled in the struggles between whites and Blacks. He is especially interested in an ancient tribe called the Maroons, descendants of the Ashanti, who had been enslaved by the Spanish and then fought the British in a hundred-year war. Despite this history of oppression, the Maroons have managed to maintain a relatively autonomous existence in Jamaica. Partly out of guilt and an intellectual sense of social responsibility, Banks's narrator gets involved in reuniting two clans who have been feuding for generations. Unfortunately, his attempt ends in disaster, and the narrator must deal with his feelings of alienation, isolation, and failure.
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“[A] trulyexcellent novel...A powerful testament to human nature, alternating creativeand destructive forces...Banks is a master of the techniques that make peoplewant to read novels...Those morbidly fascinating little twists of humanexistence are all here: love and sex, life and death, beauty and horror—theworks.”
— Chicago Sun-Times
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“Russell Banks has created in Cloudsplitter an immediate landmark in American fiction.”
— BookPage -
“A compelling novel…Banks achieves effects at once beautiful and brutal. A virtuoso performance.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Impeccable and serious, knowledgeable and refined.”
— Booklist
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About Russell Banks
Russell Banks (1940-2023), twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, was one of America’s most prestigious fiction writers. Two of his novels, The Sweet Hereafter and Affliction, have been made into award-winning films. He was a member of the International Parliament of Writers and former New York State Author and was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996. He was a past president of the International Parliament of Writers. His work has been translated into twenty languages and has received numerous prizes and awards, including the Common Wealth Award for Literature.
About Norman Dietz
Norman Dietz is a writer, voice-over artist, and audiobook narrator. He has won numerous Earphones Awards and was named one of the fifty “Best Voices of the Century” by AudioFile magazine. He and his late wife, Sandra, transformed an abandoned ice-cream parlor into a playhouse, which served “the world’s best hot fudge sundaes” before and after performances. The founder of Theatre in the Works, he lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.