John Woman
About this audiobook
A convention-defying novel by bestselling writer Walter Mosley, John Woman recounts the transformation of an unassuming boy named Cornelius Jones into John Woman, an unconventional history professor―while the legacy of a hideous crime lurks in the shadows.
At twelve years old, Cornelius, the son of an Italian-American woman and an older black man from Mississippi named Herman, secretly takes over his father’s job at a silent film theater in New York’s East Village. Five years later, as Herman lives out his last days, he shares his wisdom with his son, explaining that the person who controls the narrative of history controls their own fate.
After his father dies and his mother disappears, Cornelius sets about reinventing himself―as Professor John Woman, a man who will spread Herman’s teachings into the classrooms of his unorthodox southwestern university and beyond. But there are other individuals who are attempting to influence the narrative of John Woman and who might know something about the facts of his hidden past.
Engaging with some of the most provocative ideas of recent intellectual history, John Woman is a compulsively readable, deliciously unexpected novel about the way we tell stories and whether the stories we tell have the power to change the world.
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About the author
Walter Mosley is one of America’s most celebrated writers. He was given the 2020 National Book Award’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, and honored with the Anisfield-Wolf Award, a Grammy Award, a PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award, the Robert Kirsch Award, numerous Edgar Awards, and several NAACP Image Awards. His work is translated into twenty-five languages. As an executive producer, he adapted his novel, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, for AppleTV+ and serves as a writer and executive producer for FX’s “Snowfall.”
Dion Graham, from HBO's The Wire, also narrates The First 48 on A&E. A multiple Audie Award-winning narrator and critically acclaimed actor, he has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, internationally, in films, and in several hit television series. His performances have been praised as thoughtful and compelling, vivid, and full of life.
