Winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction Praise for "The Good Lord Bird" "A magnificent new novel by the best-selling author James McBride...a brilliant romp of a novel...McBride--with the same flair for historical mining, musicality of voice and outsize characterization that made his memoir, "The Color of Water," an instant classic--pulls off his portrait masterfully, like a modern-day Mark Twain: evoking sheer glee with every page." --"The New York Times Book Review" "You may know the story of John Brown's unsuccessful raid on Harpers Ferry, but author James McBride's retelling of the events leading up to it is so imaginative, you'll race to the finish."--NPR "A boisterous, highly entertaining, altogether original novel by James McBride...There is something deeply humane in this [story], something akin to the work of Homer or Mark Twain. McBride's Little Onion -- a sparkling narrator who is sure to win new life on the silver screen -- leads us through history's dark corridors, suggesting that "truths" may actually lie elsewhere." --"The Washington Post" "Wildly entertaining...From the author of The Color of Water, a rollicking saga about one of America's earliest abolitionists." --"People "(4 star review; "People Pick") "McBride delivers another tour de force...A fascinating mix of history and mystery."--"Essence" "A story that's difficult to put down."--"Ebony" "Outrageously entertaining...The Good Lord Bird rockets toward its inevitable and, yes, knee-slapping conclusion. Never has mayhem been this much of a humdinger." --"USA Today" "An impressively deep comedy...It's a view of the antebellum world refreshingly free of pieties, and full of questions about the capacity of human beings to act on their sense of right and wrong, about why the world is the way it is, and what any one of us can do to make it better. It's the rare comic novel that delves so deep." --Salon "Both

James McBride is an accomplished musician and author of the American classic "The Color of Water "and the bestsellers "Song Yet Sung "and "Miracle at St. Anna," which was turned into a film by Spike Lee. A graduate of Oberlin College, he has a master's in journalism from Columbia University. McBride holds several honorary doctorates and is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.