The Unicorn Woman - Gayl Jones

The Unicorn Woman

By: Gayl Jones

Hardcover | 20 August 2024

At a Glance

Hardcover


$44.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $11.19 with

 or 

Aims to ship in 15 to 25 business days

Marking a dramatic new direction for Jones, a riveting tale set in the Post WWII South, narrated by a Black soldier who returns to Jim Crow and searches for a mythical ideal

Set in the early 1950s, this latest novel from Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Gayl Jones follows the witty but perplexing army veteran Buddy Ray Guy as he embodies the fate of Black soldiers who return, not in glory, but into their Jim Crow communities.

A cook and tractor repairman, Buddy was known as Budweiser to his army pals because he's a wise guy. But underneath that surface, he is a true self-educated intellectual and a classic seeker: looking for religion, looking for meaning, looking for love.

As he moves around the south, from his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, primarily, to his second home of Memphis, Tennessee, he recalls his love affairs in post-war France and encounters with a variety of colorful characters and mythical prototypes: circus barkers, topiary trimmers, landladies who provide shelter and plenty of advice for their all-Black clientele, proto feminists, and bigots. The lead among these characters is, of course, The Unicorn Woman, who exists, but mostly lives in Bud's private mythology.

Jones offers a rich, intriguing exploration of Black (and Indigenous) people in a time and place of frustration, disappointment, and spiritual hope.

You Can Find This Book In

More in Historical Fiction

The Night on the Darling River - Darry Fraser

RRP $32.99

$30.25

The Ghosts of August : Colonial Series Book 6 - Peter Watt
The Players - Minette Walters

Paperback

RRP $34.99

$33.25

Molly : A Prequel to the Dressmaker - Rosalie Ham

RRP $34.99

$25.90

26%
OFF
Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

RRP $22.99

$21.25

A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles

RRP $22.99

$21.90

Lessons in Chemistry : The multi-million-copy bestseller - Bonnie Garmus
The Instrumentalist : The international bestseller - Harriet Constable
The Pillars of the Earth : Kingsbridge - Ken Follett

RRP $26.99

$25.75

The Nightingale : A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick - Kristin Hannah
The Island of Sea Women - Lisa See

RRP $24.99

$23.25

My Brilliant Friend : Neapolitan Quartet - Elena Ferrante
The Storm Sister : Seven Sisters Book 2 - Lucinda Riley

RRP $24.99

$22.25

11%
OFF
The Alice Network : A Novel - Kate Quinn

RRP $22.99

$21.90

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

$22.99

This product is categorised by