The Unicorn Woman

A RICHLY IMAGINATIVE AND MOVING NEW NOVEL FROM THE PULITZER FINALIST AND ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF CORREGIDORA A cook and tractor repairman, Buddy was known as Budweiser to his army pals because he s a wise guy. But underneath that surface, he s a man on a quest: looking for religion, looking for meaning, looking for love. Returning from the Second World War not to a hero s welcome, but to the discrimination of the Jim Crow laws, Buddy stumbles across the Unicorn Woman, a carnival sideshow with a horn growing from her forehead, whose strange beauty he can t forget. As he drifts across the South, from Kentucky to Memphis, Buddy encounters a dazzling array of almost mythic characters: circus barkers, topiary trimmers, landladies who provide shelter and plenty of advice for their all-Black clientele, proto feminists and bigots dreaming all the while of the unforgettable Unicorn Woman herself. With her inimitable eye for beauty, tragedy and humour, Jones offers a rich, intriguing exploration of the Black imagination in a time of frustration and hope. > A literary giant , - Tayari Jones > Intricate, mesmerising and endlessly inventive , - Deesha Philyaw