Announced January 16, 1998
About the Book
As the book begins deep in Oklahoma early one morning in 1976, nine men from Ruby (pop. 360), in defense of "the one all black town worth the pain," assault the nearby Convent and the women in it.
"Rumors had been whispered for more than a year. Outrages that had been accumulating all along took shape as evidence. A mother was knocked down the stairs by her cold-eyed daughter. Four damaged infants were born in one family. Daughters refused to get out of bed. Brides disappeared on their honeymoons. Two brothers shot each other on New Year's Day. Trips to Demby for VD shots common. And what went on at the Oven these days was not to be believed ... The proof they had been collecting since the terrible discovery in the spring could not be denied: the one thing that connected all these catastrophes was in the Convent. And in the Convent were those women."
In Paradise — her first novel since she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature — Toni Morrison gives us a bravura performance. From the town's ancestral origins in 1890 to the fateful day of the assault, Paradise tells the story of a people ever mindful of the relationship between their spectacular history and a void "where random and organized evil erupted when and where it chose." Richly imagined and elegantly composed, Paradise weaves a powerful mystery.
About the Author
The volume of critical and popular acclaim that has arisen around the work of Toni Morrison is virtually unparalleled in modern letters. Her six major novels — The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Sula, Tar Baby, Beloved, and Jazz — have collected nearly every major literary prize. Ms. Morrison received the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1977 for Song of Solomon. In 1987, Beloved was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Her body of work was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Other major awards include: the 1996 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the Pearl Buck Award (1994), the title of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (Paris, 1994), and 1978 Distinguished Writer Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Ms. Morrison was appointed Robert F. Goheen Professor of the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University in the spring of 1989. Before coming to Princeton, she held teaching posts at Yale University, Bard College, and Rutgers University. In 1990 she delivered the Clark lectures at Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Massey Lectures at Harvard University. Ms. Morrison was also a senior editor at Random House for twenty years. She has degrees from Howard and Cornell Universities.
A host of colleges and universities have given honorary degrees to Ms. Morrison. Among them are Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Sarah Lawrence College, Dartmouth, Yale, Georgetown, Columbia University and Brown University. Ms. Morrison was commissioned by Carnegie Hall in 1992 to write lyrics "Honey and Me", an original piece of music by Andre Previn. The lyrics were sung in performance by Kathleen Battle. In 1997, she wrote the lyrics for "Sweet Talk," which was written by Richard Danielpour and performed in concert by Jessye Norman.
Toni Morrison has earned a reputation as a gifted storyteller whose troubled characters seek to find themselves and their cultural riches in a society that warps or impedes such essential growth. Ms. Morrison's latest novel, A Mercy, was published by Knopf on November 11, 2008 and was named to the New York Times Book Review lisf of the "10 Best Books of 2008". In it, Ms. Morrison tells the story of the fate of a slave child who is abandoned by her mother in 17th-century America. This time period proved to be a time of great change in the emerging nation whose identity was equally rooted in Old World superstitions and New World appetites and fears.
Book Reviews
"No one writes as lushly as Toni Morrison...And no one evokes more magically black communities — the people, the bonds, the talk, the buried resentments and the secret histories."
— Deirdre Donahue, USA Today
"...a breathtaking, risk-taking major work that will have readers feverishly, and fearfully turning the pages."
— Kirkus Reviews
"Another triumph for Morrison..."
— Publishers Weekly
"Gripping...Morrison is at her complex and commanding best."
— Booklist
"Like all the best stories, [Morrison's] are driven by an abiding moral vision. Implicit in all her characters' grapplings with who they are is a large sense of human nature and love — and a reach for understanding of something larger than the moment."
— Jean Strouse, Newsweek
"[Morrison] works her magic charm above all with a love of language. Her...style carries you like a river, sweeping doubt and disbelief away, and it is only gradually that one realizes her deadly serious intent."
— Susan Lydon, Village Voice
Get more resources on Paradise, an Oprah's Book Club selection.
View the Complete Oprah's Book Club List.
As the book begins deep in Oklahoma early one morning in 1976, nine men from Ruby (pop. 360), in defense of "the one all black town worth the pain," assault the nearby Convent and the women in it.
"Rumors had been whispered for more than a year. Outrages that had been accumulating all along took shape as evidence. A mother was knocked down the stairs by her cold-eyed daughter. Four damaged infants were born in one family. Daughters refused to get out of bed. Brides disappeared on their honeymoons. Two brothers shot each other on New Year's Day. Trips to Demby for VD shots common. And what went on at the Oven these days was not to be believed ... The proof they had been collecting since the terrible discovery in the spring could not be denied: the one thing that connected all these catastrophes was in the Convent. And in the Convent were those women."
In Paradise — her first novel since she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature — Toni Morrison gives us a bravura performance. From the town's ancestral origins in 1890 to the fateful day of the assault, Paradise tells the story of a people ever mindful of the relationship between their spectacular history and a void "where random and organized evil erupted when and where it chose." Richly imagined and elegantly composed, Paradise weaves a powerful mystery.
About the AuthorThe volume of critical and popular acclaim that has arisen around the work of Toni Morrison is virtually unparalleled in modern letters. Her six major novels — The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Sula, Tar Baby, Beloved, and Jazz — have collected nearly every major literary prize. Ms. Morrison received the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1977 for Song of Solomon. In 1987, Beloved was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Her body of work was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Other major awards include: the 1996 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the Pearl Buck Award (1994), the title of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (Paris, 1994), and 1978 Distinguished Writer Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Ms. Morrison was appointed Robert F. Goheen Professor of the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University in the spring of 1989. Before coming to Princeton, she held teaching posts at Yale University, Bard College, and Rutgers University. In 1990 she delivered the Clark lectures at Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Massey Lectures at Harvard University. Ms. Morrison was also a senior editor at Random House for twenty years. She has degrees from Howard and Cornell Universities.
A host of colleges and universities have given honorary degrees to Ms. Morrison. Among them are Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Sarah Lawrence College, Dartmouth, Yale, Georgetown, Columbia University and Brown University. Ms. Morrison was commissioned by Carnegie Hall in 1992 to write lyrics "Honey and Me", an original piece of music by Andre Previn. The lyrics were sung in performance by Kathleen Battle. In 1997, she wrote the lyrics for "Sweet Talk," which was written by Richard Danielpour and performed in concert by Jessye Norman.
Toni Morrison has earned a reputation as a gifted storyteller whose troubled characters seek to find themselves and their cultural riches in a society that warps or impedes such essential growth. Ms. Morrison's latest novel, A Mercy, was published by Knopf on November 11, 2008 and was named to the New York Times Book Review lisf of the "10 Best Books of 2008". In it, Ms. Morrison tells the story of the fate of a slave child who is abandoned by her mother in 17th-century America. This time period proved to be a time of great change in the emerging nation whose identity was equally rooted in Old World superstitions and New World appetites and fears.
Book Reviews
"No one writes as lushly as Toni Morrison...And no one evokes more magically black communities — the people, the bonds, the talk, the buried resentments and the secret histories."
— Deirdre Donahue, USA Today
"...a breathtaking, risk-taking major work that will have readers feverishly, and fearfully turning the pages."
— Kirkus Reviews
"Another triumph for Morrison..."
— Publishers Weekly
"Gripping...Morrison is at her complex and commanding best."
— Booklist
"Like all the best stories, [Morrison's] are driven by an abiding moral vision. Implicit in all her characters' grapplings with who they are is a large sense of human nature and love — and a reach for understanding of something larger than the moment."
— Jean Strouse, Newsweek
"[Morrison] works her magic charm above all with a love of language. Her...style carries you like a river, sweeping doubt and disbelief away, and it is only gradually that one realizes her deadly serious intent."
— Susan Lydon, Village Voice
Get more resources on Paradise, an Oprah's Book Club selection.View the Complete Oprah's Book Club List.
Published 01/16/1998
