National bestseller "[a]n extraordinary book, a work of staggering virtuosity. With its publication, a giant world of literature has just grown twice as tall."-- from Ralph Ellison--author of the classic novel of african...National bestseller "[a]n extraordinary book, a work of staggering virtuosity. With its publication, a giant world of literature has just grown twice as tall."-- from Ralph Ellison--author of the classic novel of african-American experience, --the long-awaited second novel. Here is the master of American vernacular--the rhythms of jazz and gospel and ordinary speech--at the height of his powers, telling a powerful, evocative tale of a prodigal of the twentieth century.