{"product_id":"the-occidental-book-of-the-dead-a-novel-a-split-narrative-of-race-police-corruption-and-moral-compromise-in-atlanta-by-t-geronimo-johnson","title":"The Occidental Book of the Dead: A Novel by T. Geronimo Johnson (Hardcover) (PREORDER)","description":"\u003cp\u003eFiction - Literary - Crime - Psychological - Politcal - Southern - African American and Black\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRELEASE DATE: 10\/6\/2026 (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER'S WAREHOUSE)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the PEN\/Faulkner finalist and National Book Award longlisted author of Welcome to Braggsville, comes this audacious and darkly funny literary crime masterpiece centered on a Black cop in an Atlanta precinct, whose façade of white alliance begins to crumble after a highly publicized murder\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGeorge Washington Jonson is determined to forge a new life. After growing up in one of Atlanta’s poorest housing projects, he enlists in the U.S. Army and finds some relief serving abroad. When events lead him back home, he joins the police force. It’s 1992, and Jonson is patrolling the streets he grew up on alongside his new partner, a shady legacy cop and self-described “redneck” who takes Jonson under his wing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter a decade on the job, Jonson has fashioned a new life in an affluent suburb with his white wife and stepson, though he’s still policing his old neighborhood, and now tasked with training hot-headed rookie recruits. One night on patrol a split-second confrontation with a white teenager takes a violent turn. That single gunshot sets into motion a series of escalating lies.\u003cbr\u003eWhen the white-washed veneer of Jonson’s life begins to crack, the story splits, presenting two contrasting versions of the American experience as he’s forced to confront the history that shaped him and the compromises required of a good man in a broken system.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEmploying a bold, inventive structure and spanning two fraught decades, vividly evoking the complexities of the South, and written with his trademark virtuosic dissonance, The Occidental Book of the Dead is a propulsive, pyrotechnic exploration of corruption and conspiracy in a nation divided.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAUTHOR BIO: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBorn and raised in the American South, \u003cstrong\u003eT. Geronimo Johnson\u003c\/strong\u003e is the bestselling author of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eWelcome to Braggsville\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, longlisted for the National Book Award and Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence; and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eHold It 'Til It Hurts,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003ea finalist for the PEN\/Faulkner Award. He won the inaugural Joyce Carol Oates Award, the Rome Prize, Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and the William Saroyan International Prize, received his M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he later taught writing, and has held Stegner and Iowa Arts fellowships.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"No one is having more fun with language than T. Geronimo Johnson. The way his mind works is endlessly entertaining, inviting us into a fantasia. Of men behaving badly in a world behaving worse. Of walking broken hearts with guns. Men, who are somehow, still, trying to bridge a cultural gap, to move toward some understanding, a shared humanity. Johnson's take on history, his political commentary, and humor read like jazz, as, with this book in particular, he plays with the novel as a form, bending notes, making new music.\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e- \u003cb\u003eAttica Locke, New York Times bestselling author of Bluebird, Bluebird\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"\u003c\/b\u003eNothing is what it seems in this spellbinding and profanely funny novel about race, police violence, and distorted narratives. . . . thrillingly plays on expectations of a sympathetic main character and a story of vindication by keeping the reader guessing at the truth and the nature of his protagonist. Fans of Susan Choi's Trust Exercise will devour this.\" - \u003cb\u003ePublishers Weekly (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"Johnson's hefty, free-wheeling, sharp-witted, disquieting third novel has a complexity that belies its straightforward premise. . . for all of its hard look at history, the book is as witty as it is unflinching, rich in comic riffs about pop music, misunderstandings around race, and where society does and doesn't place its empathy. . . A swing-for-the-fences novel, both a gripping procedural and high literary study of American bigotry.\" - \u003cb\u003eKirkus Reviews (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"Johnson, the highly acclaimed author of Welcome to Braggsville (2015), reinvents the trope of the good (sort of) cop seduced into corruption in this wildly unpredictable novel. . . . a complex, often surprising morality tale.\" - \u003cb\u003eBooklist (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"This could be one of the big conversation books of the year, about a Black cop in Atlanta whose 'façade of white alliance' falls apart in the late 90s and early 00s. Johnson's Welcome to Braggsville got plenty of comps to Paul Beatty and Percival Everett--but I think this one will plant Johnson firmly in their company.\" - \u003cb\u003eDrew Broussard, Literary Hub's Most Anticipated Books of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"Reading this novel is not unlike listening to an erudite satirist play the dozens in a marathon performance . . . Organic, plucky, smart, Welcome to Braggsville is the funniest sendup of identity politics, the academy and white racial anxiety to hit the scene in years.\" - \u003cb\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"Great American writers whose names came to mind as I was reading Welcome to Braggsville: Tom Wolfe, Mark Twain, Toni Morrison, H.L. Mencken, Don DeLillo, David Foster Wallace, Norman Mailer and Ralph Ellison. Johnson's timely novel is a tipsy social satire . . . a tour de force.\" - \u003cb\u003eNPR's Fresh Air\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e“The most dazzling, most unsettling, most oh-my-God-listen-up novel you'll read this year is called Welcome to Braggsville. . . . T. Geronimo Johnson plays cultural criticism like it's acid jazz. His shockingly funny story pricks every nerve of the American body politic . . . Welcome to Braggsville. It's about time.” - \u003cb\u003eRon Charles, The Washington Post\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"One of the most invigorating and least predictable novels of the year.\" - \u003cb\u003eKevin Brockmeier, award-winning author of The Brief History of the Dead\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"A rollicking satire . . . Radical, hilarious, tragic, and all too relevant.\" - \u003cb\u003eO magazine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"William Morrow","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50557451698369,"sku":"9780063330542","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0535\/7522\/1441\/files\/9780063330542.jpg?v=1788404838","url":"https:\/\/www.bookhavenbooks.com\/products\/the-occidental-book-of-the-dead-a-novel-a-split-narrative-of-race-police-corruption-and-moral-compromise-in-atlanta-by-t-geronimo-johnson","provider":"Book Haven Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}