Toni Morrison releases “A Mercy”
Written by: on Nov 09 | Book Alert, News |
Pulitzer and Nobel Prize Winning Novelist, Toni Morrison, will release her 9th novel on November 11, 2008. Her new book, “A Mercy”, is published by Knopf and is 176 pages (rare for a Morrison book). Check out the video interview and book excerpt below.
The following is an excerpt first printed by Oprah.com.
Don’t be afraid. My telling can’t hurt you in spite of what I have done and I promise to lie quietly in the dark–weeping perhaps or occasionally seeing the blood once more–but I will never again unfold my limbs to rise up and bare teeth. I explain. You can think what I tell you a confession, if you like, but one full of curiosities familiar only in dreams and during those moments when a dog’s profile plays in the steam of a kettle. Or when a corn-husk doll sitting on a shelf is soon splaying in the corner of a room and the wicked of how it got there is plain. Stranger things happen all the time everywhere. You know. I know you know. One question is who is responsible? Another is can you read? If a pea hen refuses to brood I read it quickly and, sure enough, that night I see a minha mãe standing hand in hand with her little boy, my shoes jamming the pocket of her apron. Other signs need more time to understand. Often there are too many signs, or a bright omen clouds up too fast. I sort them and try to recall, yet I know I am missing much, like not reading the garden snake crawling up to the door saddle to die. Let me start with what I know for certain.
To read the full first chapter click here.
NPR interview with Toni Morrison about “A Mercy”