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Historical Fiction Book Club

Thu, Oct 19

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At Birch Tree

Join us for a discussion of Deacon King Kong by James McBride with your host Hope.

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Historical Fiction Book Club
Historical Fiction Book Club

Time & Location

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Oct 19, 2023, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

At Birch Tree, 11 W Market St, Leesburg, VA 20176, USA

About the event

In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and, in front of everybody, shoots the project's drug dealer at point-blank range.

The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride's funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird. In Deacon King Kong, McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood's Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself.

As the story deepens, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters--caught…

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