Odyssey

$9.99 US
Knopf | Vintage
On sale Dec 17, 2013 | 978-0-345-80445-7
Sales rights: World
In this gripping and provocative eBook original novel celebrated  bestselling author Walter Mosley explores the mind of an African-American man who is forced to re-examine his most closely held beliefs about race and about himself.
 
Sovereign James wakes up one morning to discover that he’s gone blind.
Sovereign’s doctors can't find anything wrong with him, nor does he remember any physical or psychological trauma. Unless his sight returns, Sovereign has reached the end of his 25-year career in human resources. A couple of weeks later he is violently mugged on the street. His sight briefly, miraculously returns during the attack: for a few seconds, he can see as well as hear a young female bystander’s cries of distress. Now he must grapple with two questions: What caused him to lose his vision—and, perhaps more troubling, why does violence restore it? As Sovereign searches for the woman he glimpsed, he will come to question everything he valued about his former life.
“Stirring stuff. . . . A story of the inner life. . . . [Sovereign is] a man forced by circumstance to look inward, and not so sure any longer what he thinks.”
     —Los Angeles Times

“The book is written with Mosley’s usual precise, evocative descriptions and dialogue. It feels a bit like an experiment, the author toying with an idea that’s not yet fully formed, but Mosley’s fans will still want to check it out.”
     —Booklist Online
 
“Unusual. . . . Filled with the people and events always so well depicted by Mosley. . . . True to many of Mosley's protagonists, as mixed up as he thinks he is, Sovereign is always able to see through to the heart of things.”
     —BookLoons.com

About

In this gripping and provocative eBook original novel celebrated  bestselling author Walter Mosley explores the mind of an African-American man who is forced to re-examine his most closely held beliefs about race and about himself.
 
Sovereign James wakes up one morning to discover that he’s gone blind.
Sovereign’s doctors can't find anything wrong with him, nor does he remember any physical or psychological trauma. Unless his sight returns, Sovereign has reached the end of his 25-year career in human resources. A couple of weeks later he is violently mugged on the street. His sight briefly, miraculously returns during the attack: for a few seconds, he can see as well as hear a young female bystander’s cries of distress. Now he must grapple with two questions: What caused him to lose his vision—and, perhaps more troubling, why does violence restore it? As Sovereign searches for the woman he glimpsed, he will come to question everything he valued about his former life.

Praise

“Stirring stuff. . . . A story of the inner life. . . . [Sovereign is] a man forced by circumstance to look inward, and not so sure any longer what he thinks.”
     —Los Angeles Times

“The book is written with Mosley’s usual precise, evocative descriptions and dialogue. It feels a bit like an experiment, the author toying with an idea that’s not yet fully formed, but Mosley’s fans will still want to check it out.”
     —Booklist Online
 
“Unusual. . . . Filled with the people and events always so well depicted by Mosley. . . . True to many of Mosley's protagonists, as mixed up as he thinks he is, Sovereign is always able to see through to the heart of things.”
     —BookLoons.com