If Beale Street Could Talk

Tish is nineteen and pregnant. Her lover Fonny father of her child is in jail accused of rape. The two families struggle win justice for Fonny.|Born in Harlem in 1924 James Baldwin was a novelist essayist play­wright poet social critic and the author of more than twenty books. His first novel Go Tell It on the Mountain appeared in 1953 to excellent reviews and his essay col­lection The Fire Next Time was a bestseller that made him an influential figure in the civil rights movement. Baldwin spent many years in France where he moved to escape the racism and homophobia of the United States. He died in 1987.|If Beale Street Could Talk affirms not only love between a man and a woman but love of a type that is dealt with only rarely in contemporary fiction - that between members of a family|Soulful . . . Racial injustice may flatten the black experience into one single fearful constantly undermined way of life-but black life black love is so much larger than that . . . It's one of the signature lessons of Baldwin's work that blackness contains multitudes|Truth-telling witness bearing soul stirring writing|The spirit of Jimmy's work is of a high moral prophetic vision|One of the few essential novelists of our time|The inspiration for the new film from Oscar award-winning director Barry Jenkins'Achingly beautiful' Guardian Harlem the black soul of New York City in the era of Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. The narrator of Baldwin's novel is Tish nineteen and pregnant. Her lover Fonny father of her child is in jail accused of rape. Flashbacks from their love affair are woven into the compelling struggle of two families to win justice for Fonny. To this love story James Baldwin brings a spare and impassioned intensity charging it with universal resonance and power.'If Beale Street Could Talk affirms not only love between a man and a woman but love of a type that is dealt with only rarely in contemporary fiction - that between members of a family' Joyce Carol Oates