Another Kind of Madness
A Novel
Ndiya Grayson returns to her childhood home of Chicago as a young professional, but even her high-end job in a law office can't protect her from half-repressed memories of childhood trauma. One evening, vulnerable and emotionally disarrayed, she goes out and meets her equal and opposite: Shame Luther, a no-nonsense construction worker by day and a self-taught piano player by night. The love story that ensues propels them on an unforgettable journey from Chicago's South Side to the coast of Kenya as they navigate the turbulence of long-buried pasts and an uncertain future. A stirring novel tuned to the clash between soul music's vision of our essential responsibility to each other and a world that breaks us down and tears us apart, Another Kind of Madness is an indelible tale of human connection.
'A full-bodied literary achievement bustling with sweat, regret, and sound.' — Kiese Laymon
'[A] beautiful debut novel...Pavlic's prose is simple yet lyrical, which strikingly depicts not only the intricacies of Ndiya and Shame's relationship, but also a city and its history, as seen through architectural turnover and musical evolution. This is a moving novel about two people finding the strength to move forward together.' — Publishers Weekly
'Pavlic delivers a soulful debut novel about love and restoring hope...In prose by turns lyrical and mesmerizing, Pavlic taps deeply into what it means to be Black in America, tossing in some surprising narrative tricks along the way.' — Booklist
Ed Pavlić is the author of eight collections of poems, including Visiting Hours at the Coloring Line and Let’s Let That Are Not Yet: Inferno, both of which were winners of the National Poetry Series. He has published essays, poems, fiction, and dramatic pieces with dozens of outlets, including the New York Times, Boston Review, Harvard Review, Ploughshares, and Callaloo. His critical work includes ‘Who Can Afford to Improvise?’: James Baldwin and Black Music, the Lyric and the Listeners and Crossroads Modernism: Descent and Emergence in African American Literary Culture. A recipient of the Author of the Year Award from the Georgia Writers Association and a fellowship from the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University, Pavlić is Distinguished Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Georgia.
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