I Can't Wait On God

The crowded joys and familiar despair of poor, back-alley life in 1950 Pittsburgh have a hold on most people there, but there are those who need to escape. Jeremiah Henderson and his woman, Willet Mercer, set their sights on New York City - but making good is easier said than done. Left with no choice but to give in to the pimp who'd like to try Willet on for size before selling her to his clientele, Jeremiah and Willet try to focus on the future. But just before the pimp has his way with her, Willet balks, stabbing him to death in the back of his car. Horrified, but, nonetheless now flush with the pimp's fat wad and fancy Buick, it looks as if they may be in sight of their dreams; they just have to make one last stop outside Wilmington, North Carolina, where Willet intends to see the little boy she abandoned long ago.

Holly

[Billy] may be the best first novel by a black author since Toni Morrison The Bluest Eye in 1969.

Albert French is a writer who lives in Pittsburgh. His first novel, Billy, was published in the UK in 1994 to great acclaim.

Holly is the story of a poor, white girl in 1944 North Carolina, whose lonely world is transformed by a handsome, educated black soldier from the war - and of the town's savage response to their romance. An indictment, a love story, and evocation of a time and place, it confirms Albert French as a dark and passionate chronicler of American mores and culture

Billy

The tale of Billy Lee Turner, a black boy convicted of murdering a white girl in 1930s Mississippi, is a powerful story of racial injustice and a haunting evocation of life in the American South.

Billy is a book that will stay with me in my dreams

Although I only knew Billy Lee Turner for an all-too-brief 214 pages, I will mourn his death for the rest of my life

I kept trying to think of a writer who has done a better job of capturing clear, powerful and authentic language, the landscape, the people... I kept searching for comparisons and I kept coming up with masters of the art, from Aeschylus to Ernest Gaines

He writes in...in the idiom of his characters, which is rhythmic, expressive, ultimately poetic, and brings William Faulkner to mind

Albert French served four years in the Marines as an infantryman. After the service, he taught himself photography and worked as a medical photographer and staff journalist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In 1981 he created Pittsburgh Preview Magazine, which he published until 1988. He has written several novels, including Holly, I Can't Wait on God and Cinder.

SOON TO BE FEATURED ON THE GRAHAM NORTON BOOK CLUB PODCAST ON AUDIBLE 
 
Discover Albert French's haunting first novel; a story of racial injustice, as unsentimental as it is heartbreaking. 
 
The tale of Billy Lee Turner, a ten-year-old boy convicted of the murder of a white girl in Mississippi in 1937, illuminates the monstrous face of racism in America with harrowing clarity and power. Narrated in the rich accents of the American South, Billy's story is told amid the picking fields and town streets, the heat, dust and poverty of the region in the time of the Depression. 
 
'Billy is a book that will stay with me in my dreams', Tim O'Brien author of The Things They Carried

Albert French

Comparable to the groundbreaking work of Toni Morrison, Cinder is a valuable addition to the chronicle of African American literature and is destined to become a literary classic

Anyone who has read the fiction of William Faulkner will be familiar with this world... French is a poet at heart...there are moments of astonishing vividness throughout

The idiom of his characters is rhythmic, expressive, ultimately poetic, and brings William Faulkner to mind

In the small Mississippi town of Banes in 1938, time passes slowly and the town's inhabitants follow the same daily rhythm as they have done for years. The streets are hot and dusty and the old people watch the world go by from their porches. But Banes is a town torn apart by tragedy, divided by racial prejudice and haunted by the tale of Billy-Lee Turner, a ten-year-old boy executed for the murder of a white girl. 
 
Spanning four years, this sequel to Albert French's outstanding novel Billy focuses on his mother, Cinder, a woman whose beauty has always set her apart. It is a powerful story of heartbreak, community, history, and the ties that bind.

Albert French

Praise for Cinder

Comparable to the groundbreaking work of Toni Morrison, Cinder is a valuable addition to the chronicle of African American literature and is destined to become a literary classic

Anyone who has read the fiction of William Faulkner will be familiar with this world... French is a poet at heart...there are moments of astonishing vividness throughout

The idiom of his characters is rhythmic, expressive, ultimately poetic, and brings William Faulkner to mind

Comparable to the groundbreaking work of Toni Morrison, Cinder is a valuable addition to the chronicle of African American literature and is destined to become a literary classic

Anyone who has read the fiction of William Faulkner will be familiar with this world... French is a poet at heart...there are moments of astonishing vividness throughout

The idiom of his characters is rhythmic, expressive, ultimately poetic, and brings William Faulkner to mind

Comparable to the groundbreaking work of Toni Morrison, Cinder is a valuable addition to the chronicle of African American literature and is destined to become a literary classic

Anyone who has read the fiction of William Faulkner will be familiar with this world... French is a poet at heart...there are moments of astonishing vividness throughout

The idiom of his characters is rhythmic, expressive, ultimately poetic, and brings William Faulkner to mind

Books by Albert French

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