Les éditions Harvill Secker au Royaume-Uni ont fait l’acquisition du premier recueil de nouvelles de Jocelyn Nicole Johnson intitulé MY MONTICELLO. Ils publieront d’abord la novella éponyme dans une édition reliée en novembre 2021, puis le recueil entier dans un deuxième temps. Aux États-Unis, c’est Henry Holt qui publiera le recueil en octobre 2021. Une négociation est en cours pour les droits d’adaptation audiovisuelle. (Lire l’article du Bookseller)

Dans la novella d’anticipation, un groupe de voisins d’horizons divers vivant à Charlottesville en Virginie cherchent à se réfugier à Monticello, la plantation historique de Thomas Jefferson, après de violentes émeutes provoquées par des suprémacistes blancs. (Lire la présentation complète)

L’éditeur chez Harvill Secker a déclaré : « Families, lovers and near-strangers care for and sustain one another over 19 heart-stopping days on the mountain, finding ways to hope, to resist, and to live, as the town burns below them. Their story is told by Da’Naisha Love, an imagined young Black descendant of Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Love must reckon with her own relationship to the house and its enslaved former inhabitants, as the present threat draws ever closer ».

Le livre a déjà reçu d’excellentes avant-critiques :

“A badass debut by any measure―nimble, knowing, and electrifying.” ―Colson Whitehead, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Nickel Boys, Underground Railroad and Harlem Shuffle

“It is a rare breed of writer who can tell any kind of story and do so with exquisite deftness. Jocelyn Nicole Johnson is one such writer. Her debut collection, MY MONTICELLO, is comprised of six stories of astonishing range and each one explores what it means to live in a world that is at once home and not. She dissects the unbearable burdens of such displacement. The crowning glory of this collection is the title story, a novella about a world that has fallen apart and a small band of people who take refuge in Monticello, among the old ghosts of the former plantation, how they become family, and how they try to make a stand for their lives, for the world the way it once was. This collection is absolutely unforgettable and Johnson’s prose soars to remarkable heights.” ―Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of Hunger and Ayiti

“There is a special pleasure in discovering a voice that is vital and unlike anything else you’ve known before. Jocelyn Nicole Johnson is such a voice. One that is necessary and brimming with both heart and imagination, Johnson’s My Monticello is a beautiful debut work of art.” ―Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, New York Times bestselling author of Friday Black

“Johnson crafts a fine-grained character study that also harrowingly reveals how racist violence repeats. . . . Johnson has a knack for irony and inventive conceits. . . . A sharp debut by a writer with wit and confidence.” ―Kirkus starred review

Voir la vidéo de présentation par l’auteure :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ezjpcp52yuayffy/My%20Monticello%20-%20Jocelyn%20Johnson.mp4?dl=0

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