by Nina Revoyr
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Southland is available in paperback and e-book editions. Our print books are available from our website and in online and brick & mortar bookstores everywhere. The digital edition is available wherever e-books are sold.
LAist’s “20 Novels That Dared to Define a Different Los Angeles
Winner of the American Library Association's Stonewall Honor Award in Literature
Nominated for an Edgar Award
Selected for the LA Times Best Book of 2003 List
Nominated for the LA Times Book Prize
Nominated for a Ferro-Grumley Literary Award
Nominated for a Lambda Literary Award
A Book Sense 76 Pick
InsightOut Book Club Selection
"The plot line of Southland is the stuff of a James Ellroy or a Walter Mosley novel . . . But the climax fairly glows with the good-heartedness that Revoyr displays from the very first page." —Los Angeles Times
"If Oprah still had her book club, this novel likely would be at the top of her list . . . With prose that is beautiful, precise, but never pretentious . . ." —Booklist (starred review)
"Compelling . . . never lacking in vivid detail and authentic atmosphere, the novel cements Revoyr's reputation as one of the freshest young chroniclers of life in LA." —Publishers Weekly
"What makes a book like Southland resonate is that it merges elements of literature and social history with the propulsive drive of a mystery, while evoking Southern California as a character, a key player in the tale. Such aesthetics have motivated other Southland writers, most notably Walter Mosley." —Los Angeles Times
"Fascinating and heartbreaking . . . an essential part of LA history." —LA Weekly
"Read this book and tell me you don't want to read more. I know I do." —Dorothy Allison
". . . subtle, effective . . . [with] a satisfyingly unpredictable climax." —Washington Post
"An engaging, thoughtful book that even East Coasters can enjoy." —New York Press
"Dead-on descriptions of California both gritty and golden." —East Bay Express
"Southland gripped my attention and would not let go until I turned the last page." —International Examiner
"A remarkable feat." —Susan Straight
"Southland is a simmering stew of individual dreams, family struggles, cultural relations, social changes, and race relations. It is a compelling, challenging, and rewarding novel." —Chicago Free Press
Nina Revoyr brings us a compelling story of race, love, murder, and history against the backdrop of Los Angeles. A young Japanese-American woman, Jackie Ishida, is in her last semester of law school when her grandfather, Frank Sakai, dies unexpectedly. While trying to fulfill a request from his will, Jackie discovers that four black teenagers were killed in the store he ran during the Watts Riots of 1965—and that the murders were never solved or reported. Along with James Lanier, a cousin of one of the victims, she tries to piece together the story of the boys' deaths. In the process, Jackie unearths the long-held secrets of her family's history—and her own. Moving in and out of the past, from the shipping yards and internment camps of World War II; to the barley fields of the Crenshaw District in the 1930s; to the means streets of Watts in the 1960s; to the night spots and garment factories of the 1990s, Southland weaves a tale of Los Angeles in all of its faces and forms.
Also available by Nina Revoyr: Wingshooters
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The Age of Dreaming is available in paperback and e-book editions. Our print books are available from our website and in online and brick & mortar bookstores everywhere. The digital edition is available wherever e-books are sold.
A Booklist Book of the Year 2011
Finalist for SCIBA's 2011 Fiction Award
Winner of the 2011 Midwest Booksellers Choice Award
Winner of the first annual Indie Booksellers Choice Award
Selected for IndieBound's March 2011 Indie Next List, "Great Reads from Booksellers You Trust"
Featured in O, The Oprah Magazine's March 2011 Reading Room section as one of 10 Titles to Pick Up Now
"Revoyr does a remarkable job of conveying [protagonist] Michelle's lost innocence and fear through this accomplished story of family and the dangers of complacency in the face of questionable justice." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Revoyr writes rhapsodically of a young girl's enthrallment to the natural world and charts, with rising intensity, her resilient narrator's painful awakening to human failings and senseless violence. In this shattering northern variation on To Kill A Mockingbird, Revoyr drives to the very heart of tragic ignorance, unreason, and savagery." —Booklist (starred review)
"Hauntingly provocative . . . an excellent choice for book discussion groups as it will force readers to dig deep and look inward." —Library Journal
"Gripping and insightful." —Kirkus Reviews
"A searing, anguished novel . . . The narration and pace are expertly calibrated as it explores a topic one wishes still wasn't so current." —Los Angeles Times
"Much can be said and commended about the book's themes of loyalty and love . . . I'll just say that this author is a big talent. Her book is a little thing of beauty. It's a story with American historical significance; it's a novel with emotional heft; it's a satisfying read in the spirit of what Picasso said about another writer, James Joyce: 'The incomprehensible that everyone can understand.'" —Brooklyn Rail
"Revoyr has written a searing portrait of the all-too-recent past, of a place where change comes slowly and painfully, and of a girl just trying to find her own space in the world." —Wichita Eagle
"Wingshooters understands what many of us know from experience: that love and hate can spring from the same source, that bigotry can coexist in the hearts of people who have shown us the tenderest of love." —Hyphen magazine
"Nina Revoyr's young protagonist and her searing, skillfully told story are unforgettable. Don't miss it." —Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children's Defense Fund
"Nina Revoyr is one of my favorite writers. What I admire most is the compassion she shows for her often flawed characters. Wingshooters is a gem of a novel—filled with beautiful language, thoughtful observations on life, deep heartache, and determined acceptance." —Lisa See, author of Shanghai Girls
Michelle LeBeau, the child of a white American father and a Japanese mother, lives with her grandparents in Deerhorn, Wisconsin—a small town that had been entirely white before her arrival. Rejected and bullied, Michelle spends her time reading, avoiding fights, and roaming the countryside with her English springer spaniel, Brett. She idolizes her grandfather, Charlie LeBeau, an expert hunter and former minor league baseball player who is one of the town's most respected men. Charlie strongly disapproves of his son's marriage to Michelle's mother, but dotes on his only grandchild, whom he calls Mikey.
This fragile peace is threatened when the expansion of the local clinic leads to the arrival of the Garretts, a young black couple from Chicago. The Garretts' presence deeply upsets most of the residents of Deerhorn when Mr. Garrett makes a controversial accusation against one of the town leaders, who is also Charlie LeBeau's best friend.
In the tradition of To Kill a Mockingbird, A River Runs Through It, and Snow Falling on Cedars, Revoyr's new novel examines the effects of change on a small, isolated town, the strengths and limits of community, and the sometimes conflicting loyalties of family and justice. Set in the expansive countryside of Central Wisconsin, against the backdrop of Vietnam and the post–civil rights era, Wingshooters explores both connection and loss as well as the complex but enduring bonds of family.
Also available by Nina Revoyr: The Age of Dreaming
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The Age of Dreaming is available in paperback and e-book editions. Our print books are available from our website and in online and brick & mortar bookstores everywhere. The digital edition is available wherever e-books are sold.
Fi
nalist, 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize
Top Five Books of 2008, The Advocate
Best Books of 2008, January Magazine
"Rare indeed is a novel this deeply pleasurable and significant." —Booklist (starred review)
"Reminiscent of Paul Auster's The Book of Illusions in its concoction of spurious Hollywood history and its star's filmography, but Revoyr is a more ingenuous writer than Auster, if not as daring and spectacular." —San Francisco Chronicle
"Fast-moving, riveting, unpredictable, and profound; highly recommended." —Library Journal
"Revoyr conveys in a lucid, precise and period appropriate prose . . . a pulse-quickening, deliciously ironic serving of Hollywood noir." —Kirkus Reviews
"It's an enormously satisfying novel." —Publishers Weekly
"[Nina Revoyr is] an empathetic chronicler of the dispossessed outsider in LA." —Los Angeles Times
"Quietly powerful . . . settles to a close as deftly and beautifully as a crane landing on quiet water." —LA Weekly
"Revoyr resurrects the old old Hollywood, from the time before talkies, and dreams it into existence once again." —Bookforum
"[Nina Revoyr] is fast becoming one of the city's finest chroniclers and mythmakers." —Los Angeles Magazine
"Five stars." —Time Out Chicago
"The Age of Dreaming is a brilliant and original novel about Hollywood in the days of silent films. The carefully restrained voice of its narrator, once a famous film star, recalls Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day—but in his past, it turns out, there was also passion, madness, and murder." —Alison Lurie, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Foreign Affairs
"This is a riveting, wise, and gorgeous novel—rich in the social nuances of LA's silent film era and profoundly moving, often heartbreaking, in its exploration of the rise and fall of human lives. Every emotion in this book feels true and fully earned." —Mary Yukari Waters, author of The Laws of Evening
Jun Nakayama was a silent film star in the early days of Hollywood, but by 1964, he finds himself living in complete obscurity—until a young writer, Nick Bellinger, tracks him down for an interview. When Bellinger reveals that he has written a screenplay with Nakayama in mind, Jun is intrigued by the possibility of returning to the big screen. But he begins to worry that someone might delve too deeply into the past, and uncover the events that led to the abrupt end of his career in 1922. These events include the changing social and racial tides in California—and the unsolved murder of his favorite director, Ashley Bennett Tyler.
The Age of Dreaming explores the history of Los Angeles, the heady beginnings of the movie industry, and the interplay of race and celebrity. It is part historical novel, part murder mystery, and part unrequited love story—all told through the voice of a forgotten star who must gradually come to terms with his past.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the publisher.
Published by Akashic Books
©2015 Nina Revoyr
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-61775-353-4
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-61775-354-1
e-ISBN: 978-1-61775-208-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014955092
First printing
Akashic Books
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Our books are available from our website and at online and brick & mortar bookstores everywhere.
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