James McBride

The sheer volume of invention in Deacon King Kong commands awe...And the sentences! The prose radiates a kind of chain-reaction energy.

Deacon King Kong is full of heart, humor, and compassion...I say we give him another National Book Award for this one. It's that good.

Deacon King Kong reaffirms James McBride's position among the greatest American storytellers of our time.

Hilarious...A rich and vivid multicultural history.

Perhaps you wouldn't expect your next great read to be a sort of comic opera set in a Brooklyn housing project circa 1969 starring a drink-addled church deacon named Sportcoat, his best friend Hot Sausage and a melancholic amateur gardener with mafia ties known as the Elephant. Best put on your seat belt, because McBride (The Good Lord Bird, Five-Carat Soul) will take you on a fast, funny, farcical ride.

McBride is operating in the realm of social allegory, a lineage that extends back through generations of writers: Ralph Ellison, Terry Southern, Darius James. Like them, he telegraphs his intentions through the use — or better yet, the reinvention — of history, which as Deacon King Kong progresses becomes a kind of floating opera, touching but not always overlapping with events as they occurred.

Deacon King Kong cements McBride as a master storyteller.

Peopled with wondrously quirky and charismatic individuals...both hilarious and affecting, the patter a treat, and in wise, drunk, old Sportcoat James McBride has given us a character for the ages.

Barack Obama Favourite Read & Oprah's Book Club Pick

From the author of THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE... 
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK 
Chosen by BARACK OBAMA as a favourite read 
TOP TEN books of the year, NEW YORK TIMES & WASHINGTON POST 
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD winning author 
 
'Brilliantly imagined, larger than life, a tragicomedic epic.' JOYCE CAROL OATES 
 
'Deeply felt, beautifully written and profoundly humane.' JUNOT DIAZ 
 
'Among the greatest American storytellers of our time.' BOOKPAGE 
 
'A modern day Mark Twain' NYT Book Review 
 
The year is 1969. In a housing project in south Brooklyn, a shambling old church deacon called Sportcoat shoots - for no apparent reason - the local drug-dealer who used to be part of the church's baseball team. The repercussions of that moment draw in the whole community, from Sportcoat's best friend - Hot Sausage - to the local Italian mobsters, the police (corrupt and otherwise), and the stalwart ladies of the Five Ends Baptist Church. 
 
DEACON KING KONG is a book about a community under threat, about the ways people pull together in an age when the old rules are being rewritten. It is very funny in places, and heartbreaking in others. From a prize-winning storyteller, this New York Times bestseller shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, and that the communities we build are fragile but vital. 
______________________ 
 
'When I met James McBride, I felt like I'd had coffee with a hysterically funny Leo Tolstoy' Ethan Hawke 
 
'A hilarious, pitch-perfect comedy set in the Brooklyn projects of the late 1960s. This alone may qualify it as one of the year's best novels.' The Washington Post 
 
What Goodreads readers are saying: 
 
***** 'Deacon King Kong is one of those novels whose brilliance sneaks up on you. I haven't been this pleasantly surprised by a book in a while.' 
 
***** 'I do believe I just finished one of my all time favorite books. I loved every minute spent with Sportcoat and his community. A good old fashioned yarn shot through with truth, spirit, and humor. I LOVED it!' 
 
***** 'This book was a balm for my soul, a portrait of a black church community circa 1969 with sweet characters (well, most of them), interconnections that stretch back decades, and a plot with more than one mystery at its heart.' 
 
***** '"Deacon" has the texture of folk lore and fable mixed with the unexpected rhythms of jazz and the noisy streets of late 1960s Brooklyn.' 
 
***** 'The ending was one of those where you clutch your heart and want to hug the book (or your Kindle).' 
 
Author of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, a Waterstones Book of the Month 2024

James McBride

Praise for Deacon King Kong

The sheer volume of invention in Deacon King Kong commands awe...And the sentences! The prose radiates a kind of chain-reaction energy.

Deacon King Kong is full of heart, humor, and compassion...I say we give him another National Book Award for this one. It's that good.

Deacon King Kong reaffirms James McBride's position among the greatest American storytellers of our time.

The sheer volume of invention in Deacon King Kong commands awe...And the sentences! The prose radiates a kind of chain-reaction energy.

Deacon King Kong is full of heart, humor, and compassion...I say we give him another National Book Award for this one. It's that good.

Deacon King Kong reaffirms James McBride's position among the greatest American storytellers of our time.

The sheer volume of invention in Deacon King Kong commands awe...And the sentences! The prose radiates a kind of chain-reaction energy.

Deacon King Kong is full of heart, humor, and compassion...I say we give him another National Book Award for this one. It's that good.

Deacon King Kong reaffirms James McBride's position among the greatest American storytellers of our time.

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter