Mat Johnson, Author . Bloomsbury $23.95 (300p) ISBN 978-1-58234-272-6
Set against the historically rich geography of Harlem, Johnson's smart thriller offers fine writing, a sometimes wacky but compelling story, and an absorbing social history of "the most romanticized ghetto in the world." Three ex-cons...
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Mat Johnson, Author . Bloomsbury $19.95 (215p) ISBN 978-1-58234-099-9
Novelist Johnson (Hunting in
\t\t Harlem) convincingly re-creates New York City's stratified colonial
\t\t society in 1741, while reinterpreting the only historical account of the
\t\t rumored slave revolt, hysteria and kangaroo trial that led to
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Mat Johnson, Random/Spiegel & Grau, $24 (336p) ISBN 978-0-8129-8158-2
Social criticism rubs shoulders with cutting satire in this high-concept adventure from novelist (Hunting in Harlem) and graphic novelist (Incognegro) Johnson. Shortly after Chris Jaynes, a struggling "blackademic" at a small Hudson Valley college...
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Mat Johnson, Author Bloomsbury Publishing PLC $23.95 (288p) ISBN 978-1-58234-104-0
An African-American ad designer follows his luck from the hood to the U.K.--and back--in this uneven but quite worthwhile first novel. At 31, having finally earned his B.A., narrator Chris Jones yearns to escape West Philadelphia, his rundown...
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Mat Johnson. Spiegel & Grau, $26 (304p) ISBN 978-0-8129-9345-5
Politically correct attitudes regarding racial identity get a satirical skewering in Johnson's (Pym) latest droll turn. Comic book illustrator Warren Duffy, the light-skinned son of a black mother and a white father, has always considered himself...
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Mat Johnson and Simon Gane, DC/Vertigo, $24.99 (160p) ISBN 978-1-4012-2160-7
Set in New Orleans in the first days after Hurricane Katrina, Dark Rain—much like Johnson's lauded 2008 graphic novel Incognegro—uses the trappings of gritty crime fiction to explore deeper issues of race in America. Dabny, a decorated soldier and...
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Mat Johnson, Author, Warren Pleece, Illustrator Vertigo $19.99 (134p) ISBN 978-1-4012-1097-7
The brows are furrowed and teeth mightily clenched in Pleece\x92s noirish artwork for Johnson\x92s pulpy tale of a black journalist who goes undercover in the 1930s South to investigate a possible trumped-up murder charge against his brother\x97a...
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Mat Johnson. One World, $27 (272p) ISBN 978-0-593-22925-5
Johnson (Loving Day) delivers an alien abduction satire that reads like Gulliver’s Travels by way of The Truman Show. It opens with sociologist Nalini grimly analyzing her bro-y fellow astronauts on the SS Delany, a cryoship headed for Jupiter. A...
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Mat Johnson and Steve Lieber. Dark Horse/Berger, $22.99 trade paper (104p) ISBN 978-1-5067-4510-7
A grief-stricken son discovers he can revisit his past in this wry graphic novel from American Book Award winner Johnson (Incognegro). Johnson sets a mordant tone early on—protagonist Devin tries to drop a rose into his recently deceased mother’s...
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