The Unicorn Woman

A richly imaginative and moving new novel from the Pitzer finast and acclaimed author of Corregidora
A cook and tractor reAirman, Buddy was known as Budweiser to his army Als because he’s a wise guy. But underneath that surface, he’s a man on a quest: looking for region, looking for meaning, looking for love.
Returning from the Second World War not to a hero’s welcome, but to the discrimination of the Jim Crow laws, Buddy stumbles across the Unicorn Woman, a carnival sideshow with a horn growing from her forehead, whose strange beauty he can’t forget.
As he drifts across the South, from Kentucky to Mphis, Buddy encounters a dazzng array of almost mythic characters: circus barkers, topiary trimmers, landladies who provide shelter and plenty of advice for their all-Black centele, proto finists and bigots – dreaming all the while of the unforgettable Unicorn Woman herself.
With her inimitable eye for beauty, tragedy and humour, Jones offers a rich, intriguing exploration of the Black imagination in a time of frustration and hope.
"A terary giant", - Tayari Jones
"Intricate, mesmerising and endlessly inventive", - Deesha Philyaw