Initially, this is the story of a tragedy a young musician cut down by the Nazis at his prime, after playing with Louis Armstrong and cutting one of the best jazz records ever made, right in front of the eyes of one of his bandmates, who is powerless to do anything.

This becomes a key, pivotal point in the story as the band of musicians attempts to make their way from Berlin to Paris, and later to safety in the United States. In an era when the Nazi government targeted Black men, most particularly the ‘Rhineland bastards’ like Falk of mixed German and Black descent, skin colour and national heritage mattered to a high degree. Race and national identity run at the core of this story Griffiths describes himself as ‘high yellow’ and discusses the fact that his family is light enough to pass even in the core of the South, while fellow band members Falk and Chip Jones are much darker skinned, becoming obvious targets for a society where anyone who doesn’t look ‘Aryan’ is viewed with suspicion. It is here that the narrative constructed by Griffiths starts to fall apart, and readers learn that the surface story is not what it seems. Readers are taken back and forth between 1930s-1940s Berlin and later Paris, and Berlin in 1992, three years after the fall of the wall, where Griffiths attends a documentary screening highlighting Falk’s life. The tale opens as our narrator, Sid Griffiths, describes the arrest of fellow musician Hieronymous Falk, an up and comer in Paris. Half Blood Blues managed to bring something new to both settings, however, illustrating that there is more to explore from this period of history. Likewise, the suppression of jazz in Berlin in the 1930s and early 1940s is not an entirely new choice of subject. Plop your characters in Berlin or Paris in 1940 and have at it. Western Europe in 1940 is hardly untrod territory for fiction authors and readers keep returning to the Second World War and it’s starting to feel like a stale, cheap, easy way out for storytelling. Edugyan is clearly an author to watch, as her previous work, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, was equally stunning and quickly captured international attention after its release in 2004. A lyrical, complex, layered narrative of friendship, betrayal, and jazz, the book approaches well-worn narrative ground with a fresh perspective. Esi Edugyan’s Half Blood Blues (Serpent’s Tail, 2011) is one of the more outstanding entries on this year’s Booker Prize longlist.

Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan