If Beale Street Could Talk

James Baldwin

ISBN 10: 1504680847 ISBN 13: 9781504680844

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc., 2016

Synopsis

Nineteen-year-old girl Tish and young sculptor Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and is imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions-- affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Like the blues -- sweet, sad and full of truth -- this masterly work of fiction rocks us with powerful emotions. In it are anger and pain, but above all, love -- affirmative love of a woman for her man, the sustaining love of a black family. Fonny, a talented young artist, finds himself unjustly arrested and locked in New York's infamous tombs. But his girlfriend, Tish, is determined to free him, and to have his baby, in this starkly realisitic tale... a powerful endictment of American concepts of justice and punishment in our time.

From the Back Cover:

"If Van Gogh was our 19th-century artist-saint, James Baldwin is our 20th-century one."
--Michael Ondaatje

"A major work of black American fiction... His best novel yet, even Baldwin's most devoted readers are due to be stunned by it."
--The New Republic

"Emotional dynamite... a powerful assault upon the cynicism that seems today to drain our determination to confront deep social problems."
--Library Journal

"A moving, painful story, so vividly human and so obviously based on reality that it strikes us as timeless."
--The New York Times Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1504680847
• ISBN 13: 9781504680844
• Binding: Audio CD
• Number of pages: 1