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9781787478039

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Superbly written . . . a stunning work. * Kirkus * [A] masterpiece . . . Kelley wrote intricate novels that identified with the rejection of dominant social orders. * Public Books * Kelley blended fantasy and fact to construct an alternative world whose sweep and complexity drew comparisons to James Joyce and William Faulkner. * New York Times * Brilliant . . . The rare first novel that makes future ones seem both inevitable and exciting. * New Yorker *

Superb . . . The comparisons of his debut to the books of James Baldwin and Faulkner are justified. * Irish Times * Beautifully written and thought-provoking . . . It will strike a responsive chord in all men of goodwill. * Baltimore Evening Sun * So brilliant is this initial novel that one must consider Mr. Kelley for tentative future placement among the paragons of American letters. * Boston Sunday Herald * A rare first novel: dynamic, imaginative, and accomplished . . . It is a custom to say of first novels that they 'show promise.' But we need not say that of this one. It shows accomplishment; it shows fulfillment. * Chicago Sunday Tribune * Superbly written . . . a stunning work. * Kirkus * An exceptionally powerful and elegant first novel. * Manchester Guardian * [A] masterpiece . . . Kelley wrote intricate novels that identified with the rejection of dominant social orders. * Public Books * This first novel just perhaps could play a part in changing our history. * Kansas City Star * Kelley blended fantasy and fact to construct an alternative world whose sweep and complexity drew comparisons to James Joyce and William Faulkner. * New York Times * Brilliant . . . The rare first novel that makes future ones seem both inevitable and exciting. * New Yorker * A Different Drummer is a revelation. A story so vividly alive I closed the book a different person from the one who opened it. A vital classic of literature. -- Polly Clark, author of Larchfield Wonderful . . . full of dazzling moments of social and psychological observation that jump from the page as if they were written yesterday. * Metro * Astounding . . . Absolutely essential reading. * Stylist * Black America's lost literary masterpiece. * Observer * Set to become a publishing sensation. -- Kirsty Lang * BBC Front Row * Simple, timeless, mythic . . . an astounding achievement . . . still relevant and powerful today. * Sunday Times *

Simple, timeless, mythic . . . an astounding achievement . . . still relevant and powerful today. * Sunday Times * Superbly written . . . a stunning work. * Kirkus * [A] masterpiece . . . Kelley wrote intricate novels that identified with the rejection of dominant social orders. * Public Books * Kelley blended fantasy and fact to construct an alternative world whose sweep and complexity drew comparisons to James Joyce and William Faulkner. * New York Times * Brilliant . . . The rare first novel that makes future ones seem both inevitable and exciting. * New Yorker *

Author Information

Born in New York in 1937, William Melvin Kelley was an African-American writer known for his satirical explorations of race relations in America. He was just twenty-four years old when his debut novel, A Different Drummer, was first published in 1962, earning him critical comparisons to William Faulkner and James Baldwin. Considered part of the Black Arts Movement, Kelley was in 2014 officially credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with coining the political term 'woke,' in a 1962 New York Times article entitled 'If You're Woke You Dig It'. He died in February of 2017, aged 79.

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