Five-Carat Soul, by James McBride

These stories by the winner of the National Book Award are all suffused with a strong sense of place and time, drawing us strongly into each. The collection has two clusters of related stories, but all follow the theme of how white America has routinely forgotten or repressed the memory of black hardships. This is most clear in "The Christmas Dance," where we and the main character learn about the decimation of an all-black regiment in the Italian theater of World War II. The most startlingly unique story is "Mr. P & the Wind" - our protagonist is a lion, king of the jungle, trapped in a zoo. McBride's character sing with unique voices and encompass the complex emotions we each carry within us, even children and the superficially one-dimensional. This collection is a reminder of how black Americans are still treated poorly so long after the end of slavery, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights Act. The writing is deliberate and luminous while still being playful, and reveal a writer very at home in his voice but comfortable to venture outside it.

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