2013NBA 2013
The Good Lord Bird
James McBride · b. 1957 · United States
Why it matters
An enslaved boy mistaken for a girl is swept into John Brown's doomed abolitionist crusade, narrating Harpers Ferry's chaos in a voice as comic as it is damning. McBride's National Book Award winner turns American historical myth inside out.
At a glance
historical fictionpicaresquecomedy
Difficulty 5/10fast pace417 pagesComic vernacular narration moves briskly despite handling slavery's horror directly.
Deep dive
How a mistaken-for-a-girl slave boy narrating John Brown's crusade lets McBride mock American myth-making without ever quite dismissing the myth.
Where to go next
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