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  • Published: 15 September 2006
  • ISBN: 9781581952179
  • Imprint: Steerforth Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 440
  • RRP: $32.99

Such Sweet Thunder

A Novel



Unique depiction of African-American urban life between the world wars, a truly great work of American literature that should gain a wide readership and be of enduring interest.

Set in Kansas City, Missouri, during the Jazz Age of the 1920s and ’30s, Such Sweet Thunder is a majestic evocation of childhood and parental love told through the eyes of a remarkable boy, Amerigo Jones. This vivid portrait of an era marred by racial segregation and relentless, daily injustices is nonetheless rendered with love and longing for a time and place that was enriched by a vibrant, burgeoning, and widely influential African American culture and a fierce feeling for family and community.

  • Published: 15 September 2006
  • ISBN: 9781581952179
  • Imprint: Steerforth Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 440
  • RRP: $32.99

Praise for Such Sweet Thunder

"Missouri spawned Huck Finn . . . and now it will have Amerigo Jones too." -- Speakeasy

"With his fastidious attention to urban detail . . . Carter resembles another, more famous expatriate, James Joyce." -- New York Times Book Review

"A colossal work of fiction. Dickensian or even Joycean in scope. Of all the novels about boyhood I've encountered, I can think of only one that achieves Carter's level of fearless mimesis: Roddy Doyle's tender-brutal Paddy Clarke Ha-Ha-Ha." -- Kansas City Star

"The book takes us into its arms and transports us back in time. . . . a priceless heirloom."-- Newsday

"The story behind Such Sweet Thunder is almost as captivating as the extraordinary tale told within its pages. A rich addition to our literary understanding of the 20th-century African-American experience." -- Boston Globe

"A treasure . . . Such Sweet Thunder is Carter's Portrait of the Artist." -- Rain Taxi

"It is seldom that one comes across a book that dazzles and surprises, a book that will surely withstand the test of time. Such Sweet Thunder is such a book." -- Santa Fe New Mexican