Pulling the Chariot of the Sun: A Memoir of a Kidnapping

(Paperback, Main)

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VULTURE'S BEST MEMOIR OF THE YEAR
A NEW STATESMAN BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Shane McCrae was born to a white mother and a Black father. At eighteen months old, he was kidnapped from his parents's house. His maternal grandparents transported him to suburban Texas, wishing to hide his Blackness from him. In the years that followed, they manipulated and controlled him, believing they were doing what was best for Shane. While in their house, Blackness would always be the worst thing about him.

Pulling the Chariot of the Sun is a revelatory account of what it means to be Black in America, written with virtuosity and heart by one of the finest poets writing today. It illuminates how we all might be made whole again, through a tireless search for the truth and the joyful pursuit of what we love.

Reviews

'Imaginative, lyrical . . . Memory itself is as much the central theme as the kidnapping and its aftermath' - DECLAN RYAN

'Striking . . . [Full] of many powerfully visceral ruminations on memory' - Observer

'A moving, slippery and imagistic prose memoir by one of my favourite lyric poets writing today' - RAYMOND ANTROBUS

'Extraordinary . . . It's about race, class, imagination - and skateboarding - and is packed with passion and energy' - ROWAN WILLIAMS

'Shane McCrae's powerful, indelible poet's voice has now extended to the memoir, and how fortunate are we that the very things that distinguish his verse . . . An essential story for our times' - HILTON ALS

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Author Bio

Shane McCrae's most recent books are The Gilded Auction Block and Sometimes I Never Suffered. He has received a Whiting Award, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Lannan Literary Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives in New York City and teaches at Columbia University.

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