Read more
'[An] extraordinary tale of courage and grace' Spectator
1899, Truevine, Virginia. In the heart of the Jim Crow South, everyone that George and Willie Muse knew was either a former slave, or a child or grandchild of slaves. They were just six and nine years old, but the brothers worked the fields of a sweltering tobacco farm from dawn to dark. Until a white man offered them candy, and stole them away to the circus. There they were forced to enact outrageous caricatures: supposed cannibals, sheep-headed freaks, even 'Ambassadors from Mars'. For the next twenty-eight years, their distraught mother struggled to get them back.
But were they really kidnapped? And how did their mother, a barely literate black woman in the segregated South, manage to bring them home? And why, after coming home, did they want to go back to the circus?
Truevine is an unforgettable tale of cruelty and exploitation, but also of loyalty, determination and love.
'Quite some story, and Macy has told it skilfully, vividly, compassionately' Guardian
'Macy is a gifted storyteller and a dogged researcher and readers will be riveted by Harriet Muse's struggle to find her sons' New York Times
List of contents
- Introduction - i: Prologue: I Am the True Vine
- Chapter - 1: Sit Down and Shut Up
- Chapter - 2: White Peoples Is Hateful
- Chapter - 3: And Still the Cry Against Us Continues
- Chapter - 4: your Momma Is Dead
- Chapter - 5: Some Serious Secrets
- Chapter - 6: A Paying Proposition
- Chapter - 7: He Who Hustleth While He Waiteth
- Chapter - 8: Comma, Colored
- Chapter - 9: The Prodigal Sons
- Chapter - 10: Not One Single, Solitary, Red Penny
- Chapter - 11: Adultery's Siamese Twin
- Chapter - 12: Housekeeping!
- Chapter - 13: Practically Imbeciles
- Chapter - 14: Very Good Old Colored Woman
- Chapter - 15: Wilbur and John
- Chapter - 16: God is Good to Me
- Section - ii: Epilogue: Markers
- Acknowledgements - iii: Acknowledgements
- Section - iv: Notes
- Index - v: Index
About the author
Beth Macy writes about outsiders and underdogs, and she is the author of the New York Times bestseller Factory Man. Her work has appeared in national magazines and newspapers and The Roanoke Times, where her reporting has won more than a dozen national awards, including a Nieman Fellowship for Journalism at Harvard and the Lukas Prize from the Columbia School of Journalism.
Summary
An extraordinary and moving story of two brothers from the American South who were stolen away to become circus freaks.
Foreword
An extraordinary and moving story of two brothers from the American South who were stolen away to become circus freaks.
Additional text
As compelling as Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks . . . both are absolutely stunning examples of narrative nonfiction at its best . . . Certain to be among the most memorable books of the year.
