Paul Beatty Boeken

A detective story set in Britain in the 1840s

The electrifying debut novel from 2016 Man Booker Prize winner Paul Beatty

A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and a race trial that leads him to the Supreme Court, this novel showcases a comic genius at the height of his craft. It challenges the core principles of the U.S. Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, father-son dynamics, and the quest for racial equality—embodied in the black Chinese restaurant. The narrator, raised in the "agrarian ghetto" of Dickens on the outskirts of Los Angeles, resigns himself to a life of lower-middle-class stagnation, reflecting on the cracks in his childhood bedroom ceiling. His upbringing under a single father, a controversial sociologist, subjects him to racially charged psychological studies, leading him to believe his father's work will culminate in a memoir that could solve their financial struggles. However, after his father's death in a police shoot-out, he discovers the memoir never existed, leaving him with only a bill for a drive-thru funeral. Driven by this betrayal and the decay of his hometown, he embarks on a mission to restore Dickens, which has been erased from the map. Teaming up with the town's most famous resident, the last surviving Little Rascal, he undertakes the outrageous act of reinstating slavery and segregating the local high school, ultimately landing him in the Supreme Court.

As fast-paced and hard-edged as the Harlem streets it portrays, Tuff shows off all of the amazing skill that Paul Beatty showed off in his first novel, The White Boy Shuffle.Weighing in at 320 pounds, Winston “Tuffy” Foshay, is an East Harlem denizen who breaks jaws and shoots dogs and dreams of millions from his idea Cap’n Crunch: The Movie, starring Danny DeVito. His best friend is a disabled Muslim who wants to rob banks, his guiding light is an ex-hippie Asian woman who worked for Malcolm X, and his wife, Yolanda, he married from jail over the phone. Shrewdly comical as this dazzling novel is, it turns acerbically sublime when the frustrated Tuffy agrees to run for City Council. Smartly irreverent and edgily fierce, Tuff is a bona fide original.

Paul Beatty präsentiert in seinem ersten Roman die Geschichte von Gunnar Kaufman, einem schwarzen Jungen, der in einem weißen Umfeld aufwächst und mit Identitätsproblemen kämpft. Der satirische Entwicklungsroman erzählt, wie Gunnar als Dichter und Basketballspieler Erfolg hat und afroamerikanische Geschichte neu definiert, untermalt von verschiedenen Musikstilen.

Gunnar Kaufman, ein etwas linkischer schwarzer Jugendlicher, zieht mit seiner Familie vom schicken und multikulturellen Santa Monica nach Hillside, einem schwarzen Vorort von Los Angeles. Schlimmer konnte es nicht kommen, denn Gunnar liest Kant, Hegel und Homer, tanzt wie ein Weißer und hat von den Ghettoregeln keine Ahnung. Wie Gunnar dennoch den Durchbruch zum Dichter, Basketballstar und schließlich Erlöser der gesamten afroamerikanischen Kultur schafft - das erzählt Paul Beatty frech, virtuos und in schnellen, wechselnden Rhythmen. „Schlechter tanzen“ ist ein abgründig komischer Entwicklungsroman und Kultbuch einer Generation.

Ein einzigartiger Berlin-Roman: DJ Darky aus New York sucht einen verschwundenen Jazzer. Beatty kombiniert einfallsreich die Klänge einer Stadt zwischen Jazz und Techno und schafft einen umwerfend komischen Sound.