The Sport of Kings

By C.E. Morgan

Book Overview

A Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize

Winner of the Kirkus Prize for Fiction - A Recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction - A Finalist for the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction - A Finalist for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction - A Finalist for the Rathbones Folio Prize - Longlisted for an Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence - One of New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Book

Named a Best Book of the Year by Entertainment Weekly - GQ - The New York Times (Selected by Dwight Garner) - NPR - The Wall Street Journal - San Francisco Chronicle - Refinery29 - Booklist - Kirkus Reviews - Commonweal Magazine

In its poetic splendor and moral seriousness, The Sport of Kings bears the traces of Faulkner, Morrison, and McCarthy. . . . It is a contemporary masterpiece.--San Francisco Chronicle

Hailed by The New Yorker for its "remarkable achievements," The Sport of Kings is an American tale centered on a horse and two families: one white, a Southern dynasty whose forefathers were among the founders of Kentucky; the other African-American, the descendants of their slaves.

It is a dauntless narrative that stretches from the fields of the Virginia piedmont to the abundant pastures of the Bluegrass, and across the dark waters of the Ohio River; from the final shots of the Revolutionary War to the resounding clang of the starting bell at Churchill Downs. As C. E. Morgan unspools a fabric of shared histories, past and present converge in a Thoroughbred named Hellsmouth, heir to Secretariat and a contender for the Triple Crown. Newly confronted with one another in the quest for victory, the two families must face the consequences of their ambitions, as each is driven---and haunted---by the same, enduring question: How far away from your father can you run?

A sweeping narrative of wealth and poverty, racism and rage, The Sport of Kings is an unflinching portrait of lives cast in the shadow of slavery and a moral epic for our time.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250131847
• ISBN13: 9781250131843
• Release Date: May 2017
• Publisher: Picador USA
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 8.2"