{"product_id":"9780802120144","title":"The Broken King","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the author of \u003ci\u003eMan Gone Down\u003c\/i\u003e—a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Top Ten Book of the Year and winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award—comes a deeply personal memoir of race, trauma, alcoholism, parenting, mental illness and ultimately hope in a portrait of three generations of Black American men\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 2007, Michael Thomas launched into the literary world with his award-winning first novel \u003ci\u003eMan Gone Down\u003c\/i\u003e, a beautiful and devastating story of a Black father trying to claim a piece of the American Dream. Called “powerful and moving . . . an impressive success,” by Kaiama L. Glover on the cover of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e, Thomas’ debut introduced a writer of prodigious and rare talent. In his long-awaited encore and first work of nonfiction, \u003ci\u003eThe Broken King\u003c\/i\u003e, Thomas explores fathers and sons, lovers and the beloved, trauma and recovery, success and failure in a unique, urgent, and timeless memoir. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe title is borrowed from T.S. Eliot’s line in “Little Gidding”: “If you came at night like a broken king,” and the work ponders the process of being broken. Akin to Baldwin’s \u003ci\u003eThe Fire Next Time\u003c\/i\u003e or Nabokov’s \u003ci\u003eSpeak, Memory\u003c\/i\u003e, Thomas’ memoir unfolds through six powerful, interlocking and overlaying sections focusing on the lives of five men: his father—a philosopher, Boston Red Sox fan, and absent parent; his estranged, lawless older brother; his two sons growing up in Brooklyn; and ultimately, heartbreakingly himself. At the center of \u003ci\u003eThe Broken King\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of Thomas’ own breakdown, a result of inherited family history and his own experiences, from growing up Black in the Boston suburbs to publishing a prize-winning novel with “the house of Beckett.”  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEvery page of \u003ci\u003eThe Broken King\u003c\/i\u003e rings with the impact of America’s sweeping struggle with race and class, education and family, and builds to a brave, meticulous articulation of a creative mind’s journey into and out of madness\u003cb\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Michael Thomas","offers":[{"title":"Grove\/Atlantic |  Hardback | Cloth over boards |  2025-03-21","offer_id":46299077574911,"sku":"9780802120144","price":45.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0329\/9075\/7001\/files\/BNCImageAPI_a86df08b-29dc-4bd8-9a45-73d58c4f7aa9.jpg?v=1730483044","url":"https:\/\/riverbookshop.com\/products\/9780802120144","provider":"River Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}