The Ballad of Black Tom

This ingenious recasting of an H.P. Lovecraft classic is as creepy as it is thought-provoking. * People *
The Ballad of Black Tom stands on its own as a compelling weird tale of Jazz-age New York City, but its penetrating examination of Lovecraft’s creations and how they reflect racism’s profound influence on our cultural imagination is where it really shines. * Slate *
Ingenious… darkly witty… The writing is full of rage and passion: love for the vanished culture of 1920s Harlem and love — conflicted — for crazy Lovecraft. * New York Times *
LaValle’s novella of sorcery and skullduggery in Jazz Age New York is a magnificent example of what weird fiction can and should do. * Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All *
Holds all the horror of the cosmic void that has made the Lovecraft mythos such an enduring cultural artifact, placing it deftly amid the very real terrors of life for a young black man in a racist society. * Metastellar *
LaValle cleverly subverts Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos by imbuing a black man with the power to summon the Old Ones, and creates genuine chills with his evocation of the monstrous Sleeping King. * Elizabeth Hand, author of A Haunting on the Hill *
LaValle has taken Lovecraft’s most notorious tale and reframed it for us as an even more horrifying story, exceptionally well-written with the utmost attention to detail… The horrors of the story are both real and imagined for the reader, as we confront racism head-first with some nasty dealings in the arcane arts designed to wake up the sleeping ‘Elder Gods’. * This Is Horror *

Victor LaValle is the author of eight works of fiction, including five novels, two novellas, and a collection of short stories. He has received numerous accolades, such as a Guggenheim Fellowship, a World Fantasy Award, a British Fantasy Award, an American Book Award, two Bram Stoker Awards, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Key to Southeast Queens. His novels have been recognized in best-of-the-year lists by prominent publications including the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Nation, and Publishers Weekly. His novel The Devil in Silver is slated to be adapted into a major TV series. LaValle resides in the Bronx with his family and teaches at Columbia University.

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