Synopses & Reviews
- A Star Called Henry was a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice for 1999, one of the Boston Globe's Best Fiction of 1999, and a New Yorker Book Awards finalist for Best Fiction 1999
- A Star Called Henry was named one of the best books of the year by Entertainment Weekly, Time Out New York, Publishers Weekly, Esquire, Newsday, Seattle Times, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- A Star Called Henry was on The New York Times extended bestseller list, and was a Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, New York Newsday, and New York Post bestseller.
Synopsis
It's 1924, and New York is the centre of the universe.
Henry Smart, on the run from Dublin, falls on his feet. He is a handsome man with a sandwich board, behind which he stashes hooch for the speakeasies of the Lower East Side. He catches the attention of the mobsters who run the district and soon there are eyes on his back and men in the shadows. It is time to leave, for another America...
Chicago is wild and new, and newest of all is the music.
Furious, wild, happy music played by a man with a trumpet and bleeding lips called Louis Armstrong. His music is everywhere, coming from every open door, every phonograph. But Armstrong is a prisoner of his colour; there are places a black man cannot go, things he cannot do. Armstrong needs a man, a white man, and the man he chooses is Henry Smart.