Items related to The Garden of Unfortunate Souls
"With compassion and superb craftsmanship, Eddie Mark invokes a world of fascinating and unforgettable characters whose trials and tears become our own. The Garden of Unfortunate Souls is a powerful debut by a writer concerned, first and foremost, with the human heart."
-Charles Johnson, National Book Award-winning author of Middle Passage
Phillis Wheatley Award Winner for First Fiction
African American Literary Award Nominee for Breakout Author of the Year
Readers' Favorite 5-stars
In this tragic coming-of-age story, award-winning author Eddie Mark "thoughtfully and powerfully examines the intersections of power, social class, and gender" (Readers+Writers Journal). Set in 1980s Buffalo, New York, it begins on a rainy Friday night, when the mayor's son loses control of his car and skids across the lawn at 99 Peach Street, crashing into the front porch. This is at the home of Loretta Ford, an eccentric single mother and religious fanatic, whose own twelve-year-old son, Shadrack, is oddly not awakened by the noise. When Cornelius Brooks, the pompous mayor of Buffalo, arrives on the scene seeking to bribe Loretta into silence about the fact that his son was driving drunk, what ensues is a chain of revelations that will unveil Loretta's larger-than-life maltreatment of Shadrack and the mayor's dysfunctional relationship with his family. Narrated from the viewpoints of two culturally different African American families, the story unleashes a host of unpredictable outcomes, ultimately tracing the roots of interpersonal violence to the use of corporal punishment against children.
Written by an author whose "prose, subject matter, and characters are reminiscent of John Steinbeck" (Readers+Writers Journal), The Garden of Unfortunate Souls challenges us to rethink old assumptions about the causes of violence in urban communities. As a winner of the Phillis Wheatley Award and a nominee for Breakout Author of the Year by the AALAS, Eddie Mark is becoming an important new voice in African American literature.
-Charles Johnson, National Book Award-winning author of Middle Passage
Phillis Wheatley Award Winner for First Fiction
African American Literary Award Nominee for Breakout Author of the Year
Readers' Favorite 5-stars
In this tragic coming-of-age story, award-winning author Eddie Mark "thoughtfully and powerfully examines the intersections of power, social class, and gender" (Readers+Writers Journal). Set in 1980s Buffalo, New York, it begins on a rainy Friday night, when the mayor's son loses control of his car and skids across the lawn at 99 Peach Street, crashing into the front porch. This is at the home of Loretta Ford, an eccentric single mother and religious fanatic, whose own twelve-year-old son, Shadrack, is oddly not awakened by the noise. When Cornelius Brooks, the pompous mayor of Buffalo, arrives on the scene seeking to bribe Loretta into silence about the fact that his son was driving drunk, what ensues is a chain of revelations that will unveil Loretta's larger-than-life maltreatment of Shadrack and the mayor's dysfunctional relationship with his family. Narrated from the viewpoints of two culturally different African American families, the story unleashes a host of unpredictable outcomes, ultimately tracing the roots of interpersonal violence to the use of corporal punishment against children.
Written by an author whose "prose, subject matter, and characters are reminiscent of John Steinbeck" (Readers+Writers Journal), The Garden of Unfortunate Souls challenges us to rethink old assumptions about the causes of violence in urban communities. As a winner of the Phillis Wheatley Award and a nominee for Breakout Author of the Year by the AALAS, Eddie Mark is becoming an important new voice in African American literature.
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From the Back Cover:
"With compassion and superb craftsmanship, Eddie Mark invokes a world of fascinating and unforgettable characters whose trials and tears become our own. The Garden of Unfortunate Souls is a powerful debut from a writer concerned, first and foremost, with the human heart." -Charles Johnson, National Book Award-winning author of Middle Passage
About the Author:
Eddie Mark is a writer, researcher, educator, and former city chess champion of Buffalo, New York. His prize-winning short stories have appeared in the Hart House Review and the anthology Bloodlines: Tales from the African Diaspora. The Garden of Unfortunate Souls is his first published novel. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Educational Administration at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. His peer-reviewed academic articles have been published in the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management and the College Student Journal.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherBooktrope Editions
- Publication date2015
- ISBN 10 1620157934
- ISBN 13 9781620157930
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages212
- Rating
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