Bassist Sid and drummer Chip Jones are Americans - “poor, black and full of sky-high hopes” - in Europe to ply their trade as musicians, first in Berlin and now in the French capital. It’s also a tempestuous tale of creative drive, passion and betrayal, told in vibrant prose. So it’s an ambitious “big picture” story that encompasses two tumultuous times in history. The narrative swings between the period around World War II and 1992, when the effects of the fall of the Berlin Wall are still being felt. Half-Blood Blues is indeed the kind of story that seems destined to win a wide audience. Victoria writer Esi Edugyan’s second novel has generated plenty of buzz, thanks to cracking first the long list and last week the elite short list of finalists for Britain’s august Man Booker Prize. The remark also hints at the book’s major storyline, which unfolds as Sid’s own past catches up with him. At one point in Half-Blood Blues, narrator Sid Griffiths, an elderly jazz musician, reflects that there’s always a time “when the past come to collect what you owe.” He’s referring to the ravages of heroin use he notices in a former bandmate.
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