Half-Blood Blues

[Marie Clarke]

 

Half Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan's second novel, won the 2011 Giller Prize.

Half Blood Blues is the story of three members of a German jazz band, the Hot Time Swingers, who flee to Paris in 1940 to escape Nazi Germany. Two of the three band members are 'half-bloods', of mixed race. Hieronymous (Hiero) Falk is the youngest and the most talented member of the band. When word of his trumpet playing reaches Louis Armstrong in Paris, the group members find themselves with tickets out of Germany - just in the knick of time.

 

Continue reading.

[Marie Clarke]

Clearly I'm not the only one who loves Esi Edugyan's Half Blood Blues. Last year it won the Giller Prize and now it's been nominated for the 2012 Orange Prize.