Americus

Revelations into an American Legacy

What happens to fraternal love when identical twins stop being identical? To romantic love when indiscretions done in the dark have a secret witness? What happens to a family when the love that binds-also strangles? Inspired by Egyptian mythology and young America's coming-of-age story, AMERICUS follows the lives of rambunctious identical twins Asar and Set Americus. After Set contracts vitiligo (a skin disease that fades body pigmentation in patches), he goes from family favorite to stare-provoking freak. At10-years-old. When Set's super-capable mother can't keep her promise to cure him, Set blames her-but not more than she blames herself.

Praise for AMERICUS

“Set in an era of white mob violence that crested and broke in the early decades of the twentieth century, Michael Datcher weaves a narrative of three generations of sons trying to cultivate and maintain their manhood against relentless forces. Simultaneously a mythic novel and a historical one, AMERICUS is a story of the monsters that emerge from the monstrosities of American history. With this novel, Datcher joins August Wilson and Toni Morrison as an American storyteller.”
-P. Gabrielle Foreman, Ned B. Allen Professor of English &Black Studies, The University of Delaware

“Through powerful storytelling and compelling characters, Datcher weaves an American Story that makes you think deeply about the story of America.”
-Eric Jerome Dickey, New York Times Bestselling author of A Wanted Woman

“Readers (and writers) will exult in this dazzling iteration of Egyptian mythology set on the banks of the Mississippi River in East St. Louis, Illinois. In Michael Datcher's brilliantly wrought soular system, a set of twins, a family, a community, and America undergo rites de passage in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Datcher's novelistic authority includes ... some passages that are reminiscent of Gabriel García Márquez and Toni Morrison.”

-Eugene B. Redmond, Poet Laureate of East St. Louis, Illinois & Founding Editor, Drumvoices Revue

Michael Datcher is the author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times best-seller Raising Fences. Datcher's latest play, Silence, was commissioned by and opened at the Getty Museum. He has appeared on both news programs' Nightline and Dateline as an analyst and is a frequent commentator on BBC Radio. He is co-host of the weekly public affairs news magazine Beautiful Struggle on 90.7 FM KPFK. Datcher's writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, The Source, Ladies Home Journal, Vibe among many other publications. His poetry is widely anthologized. He has curated and/or presented his work at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, The Hammer Museum and other art institutions. He is editor of the new national journal of literary nonfiction THE TRUTH ABOUT THE FACT. Datcher teaches poetry, literary nonfiction and journalism at Loyola.