Cahokia Jazz

By: Francis Spufford

Narrated by: Andy Ingalls

Length: 15 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian and The Financial Times

From “one of the most original minds in contemporary literature” (Nick Hornby) the bestselling and award-winning author of Golden Hill delivers a noirish detective novel set in the 1920s that reimagines how American history would be different if, instead of being decimated, indigenous populations had thrived.

Like his earlier novel Golden Hill, Francis Spufford’s Cahokia Jazz inhabits a different version of America, now through the lens of a subtly altered 1920s—a fully imagined world full of fog, cigarette smoke, dubious motives, danger, dark deeds. And in the main character of Joe Barrow, we have a hero of truly epic proportions, a troubled soul to fall in love with as you are swept along by a propulsive and brilliantly twisty plot.

On a snowy night at the end of winter, Barrow and his partner find a body on the roof of a skyscraper. Down below, streetcar bells ring, factory whistles blow, Americans drink in speakeasies and dance to the tempo of modern times. But this is Cahokia, the ancient indigenous city beside the Mississippi living on as a teeming industrial metropolis, filled with people of every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. But that corpse on the roof will spark a week of drama in which this altered world will spill its secrets and be brought, against a soundtrack of jazz clarinets and wailing streetcars, either to destruction or rebirth.

©2024 Francis Spufford (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

There’s a third alt-hist noir thriller!

I’m not even done with it and it’s already one of my favorite books. It joins Fatherland by Robert Harris and the Yiddish policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon in this very very small canon of Nir detective thrillers set in alternative histories.

I love how the author keeps dribbling out just enough detail to help understand the story. In a noir police procedural with a detective who’s part Native American — and in which larger political questions about control of Alaska loom! — he owes Chabon some kind of explicit nod to Berko Shemets and Meyer Landsman. Maybe it’s there but I missed it, or maybe I haven’t heard it yet.

The readers voice is just right. He does a wide variety of accents, possibly well, including Boston Brahmin, which isn’t easy!

If I have any complaints so far, it’s only that the audiobook should include maps of this fictional city and fictional world. I know they exist because I was able to find them by downloading a free sample of the Kindle book.

I’ll be buying a physical copy of this one sooner or later. Thanks!!

complex mystery with mystic undertones

the reader was wonderful. He had many spot on voices in his reading style. The story had me looking up location and more online to be sure I had a better understanding of which racial were which. Very compelling story line.

This novel resonates profoundly with me

I picked this novel as one of my monthly credits because many years ago I was a graduate student doing field work at the Mississippian Culture site of Cahokia. I was curious as to how the author would incorporate the history of this unique archeological site into a fictional venue. This novel far exceeded any expectations I had. It was a grand effort by the author of constructing an incredibly believable alternative history and culture amongst the tapestry of American history. The development of language, class distinctions, and cultural were effortlessly woven into the real environment of post WWI America in the St. Louis area. Above and beyond the details of this evocative alternative Spufford addresses much larger issues of the human condition such as loyalty, love, and predjudice. Passages within this novel were so beautifully written I found myself going back and rereading and listening to them again. Spufford’s Cahokia and the cast of characters who lived there begged to be savored and contemplated. CAHOKIA JAZZ ranks among one of the finest books I have had the privilege to read. It will resonate with me for a very long time.