Truevine: Two Brothers, A Kidnapping, and A Mother's Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South - Tapa dura

"This compelling account of one family's tragic exploitation provides an important lens through which America's tortured racial history and the cruel legacy of Jim Crow can be seen anew."--Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy and founder and director of the Equal Justice Initiative

"Taking us into the dark corners of American history that are discussed only in whispers, Beth Macy shines a bright light on the racial profiteering of circus freak shows and the Jim Crow South. In the remarkable Truevine, Macy manages to do what all the exploitative showmen wouldn't dare; she humanizes the Muse brothers, and in doing so, she has written an unforgettable story of both heartbreak and enduring love."--Gilbert King, author of Devil in the Grove

"A consummate chronicler of the American South spotlights the extraordinary history of two kidnapped African-American brothers enslaved as a circus sideshow act... Macy vividly illustrates circus life during the 1920s, and she movingly depicts how the brothers' protective, determined mother, Harriett, eventually discovered and rescued them almost a decade and a half later... A sturdy, passionate, and penetrating narrative. This first-rate journey into human trafficking, slavery, and familial bonding is an engrossing example of spirited, determined reportage."--Kirkus (starred)

"Macy's exploration of the long-hidden fate of two young African Americans and how that fate illuminates the atrocities of the Jim Crow South is as compelling as Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks...both are absolutely stunning examples of narrative nonfiction at its best...Certain to be among the most memorable books of the year."--Connie Fletcher, Booklist (starred review)

"Beth Macy has a way of getting under the skin of American life, burrowing into the seemingly ordinary to find the weird and wonderful taproots of our society. This true tale from rural Virginia will enrage you, inspire you, make you shake your head and rear your fist. And as the pages keep turning, you'll feel yourself slipping into a gothic world of freaks and geeks, and surreal racial thinking, that seems both deeply strange and yet, sadly, all too familiar."--Hampton Sides, author of In the Kingdom of Ice, Blood and Thunder, and Americana

"If over a hundred years ago there had been Black Lives Matter, the mother of George and Willie Muse would have joined and marched for the safe return of her sons. Back then, almost a century ago, she could only keep learning and finding folk who agreed she had a right to her family...a right to the love and protection of her sons. Beth Macy in Truevine has given us a stirring story of the persistence of faith...the strength of love...in this tale of a mother's journey to reclaim not only her sons but her right to them."--Nikki Giovanni, poet and one of Oprah Winfrey's "Twenty-five Living Legends"

"Love and kinship impelled Harriet's family to try for a century to protect George and Willie...from a world that saw them as objects for exploitation. Macy, for her part, works hard to illuminate the brothers' story...Macy is a gifted storyteller and a dogged researcher, and readers will be riveted by her account of Harriet Muse's struggle to find her sons."--Edward E. Baptist, New York Times Book Review

"Expert...[Macy's] reportorial methods are inspiringly persistent (and [her] books certainly bear that out)...you can feel Ms. Macy's admiration wafting off the page."--Janet Maslin, New York Times

"Extraordinary... 'Truevine' is at once poignant and rigorous, a compassionate dual biography and a forthright examination of codified racism. Macy is a resourceful reporter and a strong but never showy writer... This book, her second after 'Factory Man, ' is the work of a journalist whose persistence, empathy and commitment to accuracy can't be doubted.... 'Truevine may focus on events that began a century ago, but its guiding spirit couldn't be more urgent."--Kevin Canfield, The San Francisco Chronicle

"Expert...[Macy] has done [Willie Muse's] life justice in a riveting story that zigzags in unexpected directions...her enthusiasm never lags...even in the worst circumstances, Ms. Macy makes clear, the Muse brothers maintained their humanity."--Jeff Baker, The Wall Street Journal

NATIONAL BESTSELLER The true story of two African-American brothers who were kidnapped and displayed as circus freaks, and whose mother endured a 28-year struggle to get them back.
The year was 1899 and the place a sweltering tobacco farm in the Jim Crow South town of Truevine, Virginia. George and Willie Muse were two little boys born to a sharecropper family. One day a white man offered them a piece of candy, setting off events that would take them around the world and change their lives forever. Captured into the circus, the Muse brothers performed for royalty at Buckingham Palace and headlined over a dozen sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden. They were global superstars in a pre-broadcast era. But the very root of their success was in the color of their skin and in the outrageous caricatures they were forced to assume: supposed cannibals, sheep-headed freaks, even "Ambassadors from Mars." Back home, their mother never accepted that they were "gone" and spent 28 years trying to get them back.
Through hundreds of interviews and decades of research, Beth Macy expertly explores a central and difficult question: Where were the brothers better off? On the world stage as stars or in poverty at home? TRUEVINE is a compelling narrative rich in historical detail and rife with implications to race relations today.