Imagine stepping into 1920s Harlem — the streets bursting at the seams with the vibrant energy of Black brilliance set to a boisterous jazzy soundtrack provided by legends like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. Nightclubs like the Cotton Club or the Savoy Ballroom are venues for Black creativity, joy, and fashion at its finest. Among the folks hustling and bustling are greats like Langston Hughes and Zora Neal Hurston, caught somewhere between integral literary figures and just folks trying to make it to the next day, blissfully unaware of how impactful their words and stories will become.
This is the world to which the new novel “Harlem Rhapsody” (Penguin Random House), the first solo work of historical fiction by celebrated author Victoria Christopher Murray, transports its readers.
The book, out Tuesday, is a fictionalization of the lives of many of the Harlem Renaissance’s key figures, including Hughes, Countee Cullen, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the woman credited as the whole movement’s “midwife” Jessie Fauset.
Source: The Grio, Kay Wicker, February 4, 2025