Higher Ground

Caryl Phillips

ISBN 10: 0679763767 / ISBN 13: 9780679763765

Published by Random House USA Inc, 1995

About this Item

A searing novel about slavery and its legacy that tells multiple stories, set generations and continents apart but unified by their ambitious exploration of themes of race, power, captivity, and abuse--from "a master ventriloquist [who] giv[es] immediacy and voice to an impressive range of vivid characters about whom the reader cares deeply" (San Francisco Chronicle).    In a slave garrison in Africa, a native collaborator betrays his people and humiliates himself in order to win the favor of white men. From an American prison cell in the 1960s, a black convict tries to impart his vision of race and justice to his indifferent family. And in a dreary city in postwar England, a displaced Jewish refugee watches her youth and sanity slip down the drain of history.   Combined and in the skilled hands of Phillips, these narratives take on a devastating power.

Seller Inventory # 00106825468

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Higher Ground
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0679763767
• ISBN 13: 9780679763765
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Fair

About this title

Synopsis

A searing novel about slavery and its legacy that tells multiple stories, set generations and continents apart but unified by their ambitious exploration of themes of race, power, captivity, and abuse—from “a master ventriloquist [who] giv[es] immediacy and voice to an impressive range of vivid characters about whom the reader cares deeply" (San Francisco Chronicle).  
 
In a slave garrison in Africa, a native collaborator betrays his people and humiliates himself in order to win the favor of white men. From an American prison cell in the 1960s, a black convict tries to impart his vision of race and justice to his indifferent family. And in a dreary city in postwar England, a displaced Jewish refugee watches her youth and sanity slip down the drain of history.
 
Combined and in the skilled hands of Phillips, these narratives take on a devastating power.

About the Author

CARYL PHILLIPS was born in St. Kitts, West Indies, and brought up in England. He is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction. His novel Dancing in the Dark won the 2006 PEN/Beyond Margins Award, and an earlier novel, A Distant Shore, won the 2004 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. His other awards include the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and currently lives in New York.