Imprint
- old phoenix
- Orion
Fiction, Crime & mystery
A mesmerising novel set in the Louisiana heartland from award-winning author James Lee Burke.
Toussaint Boudreaux, a black docker in New Orleans, puts up with his co-workers' racism because he has to, and moonlights as a prize-fighter in the hope of a better life - but the only break he gets lands him in penal servitude. J.P. Winfield, a hick with a gift for twelve-string guitar, finds his break into showbiz leads to the flipside of the American dream. Avery Broussard, descendant of an aristocratic French family, runs whiskey after what remains of his land is repossessed...
The interlocking stories of these three men are an elegy to the realities of life in 1950s Louisiana, their destinies fixed by the circumstances of their birth and time. Yet each carries the hope of redemption.
Praise for Half of Paradise
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It's been a long time since a crime novel made me cry. It's been a long time since a crime novel made every hair on my body stand on end. THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN did both - INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
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James Lee Burke has a sophisticated and brilliantly expressed vision of humanity - TLS
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Burke is the poet of the tortured South and never fails to connect at all levels - TIME OUT
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No crime writer in America can hold a pen to Burke's mastery of style and powers of evocation and empathy; this is prose that cuts straight to the heart - GUARDIAN
James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke is the author of many novels, and the critically-acclaimed, bestselling Detective Dave Robicheaux series. He won the Edgar Award for both Cimarron Rose and Black Cherry Blues, and Sunset Limited was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger. Two For Texas was adapted for television, and Heaven's Prisoners and In the Electric Mist for film. Burke has been a Breadloaf Fellow and Guggenheim Fellow, has been awarded the Grand Master Award by the Mystery Writers of America and has been nominated for a Pulitzer award. He lives with his wife, Pearl, in Missoula, Montana.
www.jamesleeburke.com
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