The Sport of Kings

Descriere

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2017

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
 

An American myth and a contemporary portrait of the scars of the past that run through a family, and of our desperate need to escape our history, to subsume it with pleasure – or to rise above it with glory.

‘You and I are family. Blood and treasure. Listen to me, I created this world with my owntwo hands, and I am going to leave it all to you.’

Hellsmouth, an indomitable thoroughbred filly, runs for the glory of the Forge family, one ofKentucky’s oldest and most powerful dynasties. Henry Forge has partnered with hisdaughter, Henrietta, in an endeavour of raw obsession: to breed the next superhorse. Butwhen Allmon Shaughnessy, an ambitious young black man, comes to work on their farmafter a stint in prison, the violence of the Forges’ history and the exigencies of appetite arebrought starkly into view. Entangled by fear, prejudice, and lust, the three tether theirpersonal dreams of glory to the speed and grace of Hellsmouth.

A spiralling tale of wealth and poverty, racism and rage, The Sport of Kings is anunflinching portrait of lives cast in shadow by the enduring legacy of slavery. A vital newvoice, C. E. Morgan has given life to a tale as mythic and fraught as the South itself – amoral epic for our time.