John Berendt Books

Genteel society ladies who compare notes on their husbands' suicides. A hilariously foul-mouthed black drag queen. A voodoo priestess who works her roots in the graveyard at midnight. A morose inventor who owns a bottle of poison powerful enough to kill everyone in town. A prominent antiques dealer who hangs a Nazi flag from his window to disrupt the shooting of a movie. And a redneck gigolo whose conquests describe him as a 'walking streak of sex'. These are some of the real residents of Savannah, Georgia, a city whose eccentric mores are unerringly observed - and whose dirty linen is gleefully aired - in this utterly irresistible book. At once a true-crime murder story and a hugely entertaining and deliciously perverse travelogue, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is as bracing and intoxicating as half-a-dozen mint juleps.

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.

Published for the first time in flipback - the new, portable, stylish format that's taken Europe by storm. Genteel society ladies who compare notes on their husbands' suicides. A hilariously foul-mouthed black drag queen. A voodoo priestess who works her roots in the graveyard at midnight. A morose inventor who owns a bottle of poison powerful enough to kill everyone in town. A prominent antiques dealer who hangs a Nazi flag from his window to disrupt the shooting of a movie. And a redneck gigolo whose conquests describe him as a 'walking streak of sex'. These are some of the real residents of Savannah, Georgia, a city whose eccentric mores are unerringly observed - and whose dirty linen is gleefully aired - in this utterly irresistible book. At once a true-crime murder story and a hugely entertaining and deliciously perverse travelogue, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is as bracing and intoxicating as half-a-dozen mint juleps.

In charming, beautiful, and wealthy old-South Savannah, Georgia, the local bad boy is shot dead inside of the opulent mansion of a gay antiques dealer, and a gripping trial follows

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.

Venice, a city steeped in a thousand years of history, art and architecture, teeters in precarious balance between endurance and decay. Its architectural treasures crumble--foundations shift, marble ornaments fall--even as efforts to preserve them are underway. This book opens in 1996, when a dramatic fire destroys the historic Fenice opera house, a catastrophe for Venetians. Arriving three days after the fire, Berendt becomes a kind of detective--inquiring into the nature of life in this remarkable museum-city--while gradually revealing the truth about the fire. He introduces us to a rich cast of characters, Venetian and expatriate, in a tale full of atmosphere and surprise which reveals a world as finely drawn as a still-life painting. The fire and its aftermath serve as a leitmotif, adding elements of chaos, corruption, and crime and contributing to the ever-mounting suspense.--From publisher description.