Esi Edugyan explores loyalty, betrayal and the horror that, if you don’t tell your story, someone else might. And they just might tell it wrong.

In the aftermath of the fall of Paris in 1940, a rising star on the cabaret scene was arrested in a cafe and never heard from again. Hieronymous Falk was 20 years old. He was a German citizen. And he was Black. Fifty years later, Chip persuades Sid, Hiero’s bandmate and the only witness that day, to return to Berlin. But Sid discovers there’s more to the journey than he thought when Chip shares a mysterious letter, bringing to the surface secrets buried since Hiero’s fate was settled.

Shortlisted
The Man Booker Prize 2011
Published by
Serpent's Tail
Publication date
Esi Edugyan

Esi Edugyan

About the Author

Esi Edugyan, Chair of 2023 Booker Prize judges, is the internationally bestselling author of Washington Black, which was shortlisted for the 2018 Booker Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Carnegie Medal for Literary Excellence, among others – and won the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
More about Esi Edugyan

Other nominated books by Esi Edugyan

Washington Black