David Anthony Durham was born in 1969 to parents of Caribbean
ancestry. He won the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Fiction Award in
1992 and received an MFA from the University of Maryland in 1996. His
first novel, Gabriel's Story, was published to wide acclaim in
2001.
He is the award-winning author of the novels Gabriel's Story, Walk Through Darkness, and Pride of Carthage, which has been translated into six languages. Durham currently lives with his wife and children in California, and he teaches in the MFA program at Cal State University, Fresno.
Acacia:
Book One: The War With the Mein
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Hardcover: 592 pages
Publisher: Doubleday (June 12, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385506066
'Durham vividly captures the frenzy of ancient warfare'battle-maddened pachyderms, hails of javelins and arrows, ordered ranks of Roman light infantry crumbling before Hannibal's mercenary army of ''copper-skinned'' Libyans, tattooed and dreadlocked Numidians and blond, blood-drinking Gauls. 'The world is cruel,' Durham's Hannibal proclaims, and it is.' 'The New York Times
About the Book
Leodan Akaran, ruler of the Known World, has inherited generations of
apparent peace and prosperity, won ages ago by his ancestors. A widower
of high intelligence, he presides over an empire called Acacia, after
the idyllic island from which he rules. He dotes on his four children
and hides from them the dark realities of traffic in drugs and human
lives on which their prosperity depends. He hopes that he might change
this, but powerful forces stand in his way. And then a deadly assassin
sent from a race called the Mein, exiled long ago to an ice-locked
stronghold in the frozen north, strikes at Leodan in the heart of Acacia
while they unleash surprise attacks across the empire. On his deathbed,
Leodan puts into play a plan to allow his children to escape, each to
their separate destiny. And so his children begin a quest to avenge
their father's death and restore the Acacian empire'this time on the
basis of universal freedom.
ACACIA is a thrilling work of literary imagination that creates an
all-enveloping and mythic world that will carry readers away. It is a
timeless tale of heroism and betrayal, of treachery and revenge, of
primal wrongs and ultimate redemption. David Durham has reimagined the
epic narrative for our time in a book that will surely mark his
breakthrough to a wide audience.
Pride
of Carthage
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Paperback: 592 pages
Publisher: Anchor (January 3, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385722494
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Pride of Carthage was a Book Sense 76 pick and a finalist for the Legacy Award for Fiction.
About the Book
This epic retelling of the legendary Carthaginian military leader's
assault on the Roman empire begins in Ancient Spain, where Hannibal
Barca sets out with tens of thousands of soldiers and 30 elephants.
After conquering the Roman city of Saguntum, Hannibal wages his campaign
through the outposts of the empire, shrewdly befriending peoples
disillusioned by Rome and, with dazzling tactics, outwitting the
opponents who believe the land route he has chosen is impossible. Yet
Hannibal's armies must take brutal losses as they pass through the
Pyrenees mountains, forge the Rhone river, and make a winter crossing of
the Alps before descending to the great tests at Cannae and Rome itself.
David Anthony Durham draws a brilliant and complex Hannibal out of the
scant historical record'sharp, sure-footed, as nimble among rivals as on
the battlefield, yet one who misses his family and longs to see his son
grow to manhood. Whether portraying the deliberations of a general or
the calculations of a common soldier, vast multilayered scenes of battle
or moments of introspection when loss seems imminent, Durham brings
history alive.
Walk
Through Darkness
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Amazon
Format: Hardcover, 304pp.
ISBN: 0385499256
Publisher: Doubleday & Company, Incorporated
Pub. Date: April 2002
Edition Desc: 1ST
Walk Through Darkness was a Summer Reading Pick from The Washington Post, an Editor's Choice for Summer Reading from The Wall Street Journal, a New York Times Notable Book and one of The San Francisco Chronicle's Best Books of 2002.
About the Book
The second novel by the acclaimed author of Gabriel's Story,
Walk Through Darkness is a story of history infused by myth, the
intense narrative of an escaped slave trying to reunite with his
pregnant wife.
Walk Through Darkness is the story of two very different men,
each on a quest, both tied together by a history of remorse, jealousy,
and a love that crosses the barriers of race during the time of slavery.
William, a fugitive slave from Maryland, is driven by two powerful
needs--to find his wife, Dover, who is pregnant with his child, and to
live as a free man. He undertakes the treacherous journey north to
restore meaning to his life, putting him at odds with the law and the
sentiments of a nation. Morrison, who fled a painful youth in Scotland,
had once hoped to establish a new life in America with his brother, but
the unforeseen realities of immigrant life drove them apart.
As David Anthony Durham traces the physical and spiritual journeys of
William, Dover, and Morrison he captures in rich, evocative detail the
events and the landscape of America just before the turmoil of the Civil
War. Interweaving tragedy and hardship with a profound understanding of
enduring love and the desire for freedom. Walk Through Darkness
is a complex story that is uniquely American, reflecting the tortured
nature of the country's bloodlines and uncovering the deep bonds, and
wounds, that exist across racial lines. This is a well-wrought work of
"fiction in history" that follows two very different American men's
paths to freedom, and places a difficult part of our nation's history
under a magnifying glass to search for something beyond pain. In the
end, it also presents a new possibility for healing -- for the
characters, and for the larger racial divide that still haunts the
United States.
Building on the strengths of his extraordinary debut, Durham opens the
reader's eyes anew to the eternal odyssey to find a home and identity in
America.
Gabriel's
Story
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Format:
Hardcover, 304pp.
ISBN: 0385498144
Publisher: Doubleday & Company, Incorporated
Pub. Date: January 2001
Edition Desc: 1 ED
Gabriel's Story was a New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Best of 2001 pick, and a Booklist Editor's Choice. It won the 2001 First Novel Award from the American Library Association's Black Caucus, the 2002 Alex Award and the 2002 Legacy Award in the Debut Fiction Category.
'Artistically impressive and emotionally satisfying, a serious work that heads off in exhilarating directions.' 'The New York Times Book Review
When Gabriel Lynch moves with his mother and brother from a brownstone in Baltimore to a dirt-floor hovel on a homestead in Kansas, he is not pleased. He does not dislike his new stepfather, a former slave, but he has no desire to submit to a life of drudgery and toil on the untamed prairie. So he joins up with a motley crew headed for Texas only to be sucked into an ever-westward wandering replete with a mindless violence he can neither abet nor avoid'a terrifying trek he penitently fears may never allow for a safe return. David Anthony Durham is a genuine talent bent on devastating originality and Gabriel's Story is as formidable a debut as we have witnessed.
Gumbo:
A Celebration of African American Writing
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Amazon
Marita Golden (Editor), E. Lynn Harris (Editor)
ISBN: 0767910419
Format: Paperback, 832pp
Pub. Date: October 2002
Publisher: Broadway Books
Edition Description: 1ST
A literary rent party to benefit the Hurston/Wright Foundation of
African-American fiction, with selections to savor from bestselling
authors as well as talented rising stars.
Not since Terry McMillan's Breaking Ice have so many African-American
writers been brought together in one volume. A stellar collection of
works from more than fifty hot names in fiction, Gumbo represents
remarkable synergy. Edited by bestselling luminaries Marita Golden and
E. Lynn Harris, this collection spans new and previously published tales
of love and luck, inspiration and violation, hip new worlds and hallowed
heritage from voices such as:
' Edwidge Danticat
' Eric Jerome Dickey
' Kenji Jasper
' John Edgar Wideman
' Terry McMillan
' David Anthony Durham
'and many, many more
Also featuring original stories by Golden and Harris themselves, Gumbo
heralds the debut of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards for Published
Black Writers (scheduled for October 2002), and all advances and
royalties from the book will support the Hurston/Wright Foundation.
Combining authors with a variety of flavorful writing, Gumbo will have
readers clamoring for second helpings.
Related Links
David Anthony Durham Web Site
http://www.davidanthonydurham.com/
David Anthony Durham Blog
http://www.davidanthonydurham.com/blog/
