A Free State

Publisher Marketing: The year is 1855. Blackface minstrelsy is the most popular form of entertainment in a nation about to be torn apart by the battle over slavery. Henry Sims, a fugitive slave and a brilliant musician, has escaped to Philadelphia. He is befriended by a leader of a popular minstrel troupe struggling to compete with similar ensembles. Henry s skill could help the struggling troupe. Black and white performers are not allowed to appear together onstage. Together, the two concoct a masquerade to protect Henry s identity. Even as their plan begins to reverse the troupe s decline, a brutal slave hunter named Tull Burton has been employed to track down the runaway and retrieve him, by any means necessary." Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 07/15/2015 (EAN 9780062284129, Hardcover) Library Journal 08/01/2015 pg. 89 (EAN 9780062284129, Hardcover) Publishers Weekly 08/31/2015 (EAN 9780062284129, Hardcover) BookPage 09/01/2015 (EAN 9780062284129, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Piazza, Tom Tom Piazza is the author of the novels City of Refuge and My Cold War, the post-Katrina manifesto Why New Orleans Matters, the essay collection Devil Sent the Rain, and many other works. He was a principal writer for the HBO drama series Treme and the winner of a Grammy Award for his album notes to Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues: A Musical Journey. He lives in New Orleans. Contributor Bio:  Pruden, John John Pruden is a professional voice actor who records audiobooks, corporate and online training narrations, animation and video game characters, and radio and TV commercials. An AudioFile Earphones Award winner, John has a solid creative foundation from which to draw for his intelligent audiobook narrations.