Description: Published for the first time, the pioneering novel of physical disability, transatlantic travel, black modernism, and one of the earliest overtly queer fictions in the African American tradition. Romance in Marseille traces the adventures of a rowdy troupe of dockworkers, prostitutes, and political organizers collectively straight and queer, disabled and able-bodied, African, European, Caribbean, and American. Set largely in the culture-blending Vieux Port of Marseille at the height of the Jazz Age, the novel takes flight along with Lafala, an acutely disabled but abruptly wealthy West African sailor. While stowing away on a transatlantic ship, Lafala is discovered and locked in a frigid closet. Badly frostbitten by the time the boat docks, the once-nimble dancer loses both of his lower legs. Thanks to a successful lawsuit against the shipping line, Lafala doubles back to Marseille and resumes his trans-African affair with Aslima, a Moroccan courtesan. With its scenes of black bodies fighting for pleasure and liberty, McKays novel explores the heritage of slavery amid an unforgiving modern economy.
Brief description:
Dion Graham is an award-winning narrator named a "Golden Voice" by AudioFile magazine. He has been a recipient of the prestigious Audie Award numerous times, as well as Earphones Awards, the Publishers Weekly Listen Up Awards, IBPA Ben Franklin Awards, and the ALA Odyssey Award. He was nominated in 2015 for a Voice Arts Award for Outstanding Narration. He is also a critically acclaimed actor who has performed on Broadway, off Broadway, internationally, in films, and in several hit television series. He is a graduate of Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts, with an MFA degree in acting.
Review Quotes:
"Gorgeously seamy...an unshackled and bitingly funny melodrama...heady and bewitching."
-- " Wall Street Journal"