The complexity of feelings between Sid and Hiero, Chip and Sid, Sid, Hiero and Delilah and even between Ernst and his father and the rest of the band, and Paul and the band, is remarkable (I did think of All That Man Is and how flat many of the relationships felt there by comparison) and made more impressive by the fact that a woman created them. A few of us were really surprised to learn Edugyan is female the banter, jealousies, rivalry, brotherhood, ribbing and slang between the bandmates feels so authentic. The story is also driven by journey and time: Sid and Chip travel from racist Baltimore to swinging Berlin to seek opportunities not open to them in America the band then have to flee Berlin to the relative tenuous safety of Paris from there they have to again escape to Switzerland, at which point we come back from the 1940s to the ’90s and join Chip and Sid’s journey to be reunited with the Kid in Poland.Īpart from the vigorous plot, we were impressed by the depth of characterisation and the relationships between the men in particular.

Whether or not Sid betrayed the Kid to the SS out of jealousy over a woman, Delilah, and the Kid’s prodigal talent whether Hiero is actually still alive as claimed by bandmate Chip, about whom we hear “lies leave his mouth dressed like truth” how many of the original band survive or are at least traceable…these are all points of suspense that keep pushing the plot forward. The novel has the structure and form of a thriller, opening with the capture by the Gestapo of Hieronymus Falk, AKA the Kid, who becomes “posthumously” famous as a genius trumpet player, whilst Sid, our narrator and fellow member of the Hot Time Swingers, watches on. We all felt we gained a perspective of lives affected by the second World War that we otherwise never would have thought of. One of our group described it as a novel that gives us “footnotes in a larger history”. We agreed the novel covered a fascinating slice of time, presenting the experience of Black (and other “other”) jazz musicians, some of whom have travelled from the US to Europe, where opportunities abound, but then finding themselves caught in the chaos and threat of Nazi Germany. Our discussion started with the admission of surprise that the book is set in a period, the run-up to World War II, that we might not immediately think of as being a significant part of Black history. Carnegie Library Reading group chose this book as part of Black History Month.

Author of half blood blues