John Berendt Books

Author John Berendt chronicles the lives of baby blue jays after he notices a nest outside his office window and follows their lives from eggs to hatchlings to full grown birds.

Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion on the misty morning of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath echoed throughout this hauntingly beautiful city. The narrative is a sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty account that reads like a novel, yet is rooted in nonfiction. The author skillfully weaves a captivating first-person perspective of life in this remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists of a landmark murder case. The story features a remarkable cast of characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman's Card Club; a turbulent young gigolo; a recluse with a deadly bottle of poison; an aging Southern belle steeped in self-absorption; a hilarious black drag queen; an acerbic antiques dealer; a sweet-talking con artist; young blacks at the debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic at midnight. These Savannahians form a Greek chorus, revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues in a town where everyone knows everyone. This sublime and seductive reading experience offers an engaging portrait of a beguiling Southern city, destined to become a modern classic.

Truman Capote’s first novel is a story of almost supernatural intensity and inventiveness, an audacious foray into the mind of a sensitive boy as he seeks out the grown-up enigmas of love and death in the ghostly landscape of the deep South. “Intense, brilliant . . . . Capote has an astonishing command . . . a magic all his own.” —The Atlantic At the age of twelve, Joel Knox is summoned to meet the father who abandoned him at birth. But when Joel arrives at the decaying mansion in Skully’s Landing, his father is nowhere in sight. What he finds instead is a sullen stepmother who delights in killing birds; an uncle with the face—and heart—of a debauched child; and a fearsome little girl named Idabel who may offer him the closest thing he has ever known to love.

A mystery, a comedy, and a riveting human drama rolled into one, from the bestselling author of MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL