THE BALLAD OF BLACK TOM

New York, 1924

Those who arrive in this bustling metropolis are looking for something magical and nothing can change their minds. All Charles Thomas Tester is looking for though in this magical metropolis is how to put food on the table, as he has his helpless father in his care. The only magic he seeks is how to make his black skin invisible, wearing a suit and carrying a guitar, scrounging up various odd jobs, wandering here and there, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook, in order to avoid the suspicious glances of rich white men and policemen. And then came the real magic. When Tom takes it upon himself to deliver a strange book to an equally strange woman in Queens, he unwittingly opens the gates from which unstoppable and ancient forces will be unleashed, forces best left dormant… The American writer Victor LaValle approaches the events and characters of the infamous xenophobic novel by H.P.  Lovecraft, The Horror of Red Hook, from an African American’s perspective. The Ballad of Black Tom (2016)   has won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel.