National Network for Equitable Library Service

Esi Edugyan won wide acclaim for her stunning novel Half-Blood Blues'a Man Booker Prize finalist and winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize. In it, 83-year-old Sid Griffiths remembers his time during WWII playing in a Berlin jazz band called the Hot Time Swingers. When jazz music was denounced by the Nazis, Sid and his bandmates fled to Paris'a move that put Hieronymous, the band's brilliantly talented trumpeter, in constant danger due to his Afro-German heritage.