January 1, 2022
Ghana-born, U.S.-based Bazawule made his directorial debut with Netflix'sThe Burial of Kojo, codirected Beyonc�'s Grammy-nominated Black Is King, will direct the musical version of The Color Purple for Warner Bros., and has had artwork featured at the Whitney Biennial. Oh, and he's written a debut novel, too. In December 1965, violence explodes when newly engaged Black couple Melvin and Bernadette make a stop in the wrong part of town, and they flee to Ghana--the country's president is an old college chum of Melvin. There, secrets and jealousy come to the fore.
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April 25, 2022
In a transportive debut set in the mid-1960s, Ghanaian artist Bazawule charts the fallout of the violent confrontation of an African American couple by a racist gang. Fearing for their lives afterward, Bernadette Broussard and Melvin Johnson flee to Ghana in disguise as a pastor and his wife. Melvin’s college friend Kwame Nkrumah happens to be the president of the country, and Melvin is certain Nkrumah will grant them asylum and a chance at a new life. When they arrive in Cape Coast, famed Ghanaian musician Kwesi Kwayson is about to perform in a courtyard outside their hotel. Bernadette catches his eye, and after she shares that her mother disappeared during a flood in her native Louisiana, the two forge a bond. Kwesi, who is on the way to perform for Nkrumah, aids Bernadette and Melvin on the road, and a rivalry brews between the two men. Meanwhile, a rogue FBI agent tracks the couple on suspicion of their involvement in the incident that caused them to flee, defying orders not to pursue them in Ghana. The fugitives-fleeing-authorities plot takes many of the expected twists on its way to a tragic conclusion, but Bazawule nails the atmosphere, loading it with cultural details on everything from palm wine to Highlife music. It’s an engaging if not riveting period piece. Agent: Anthony Mattero, CAA. (June)Correction: An earlier version of this review misstated which character's mother disappeared during a flood.
May 15, 2022
A debut novel about an African American fugitive couple seeking refuge in Ghana. It's 1966, and Bernadette and Melvin are in Accra, Ghana, far from their American home. They're not there for pleasure--the couple are on the run after Melvin, held at gunpoint by a racist White man outside an Alabama restaurant, grabbed the weapon from the bigot and shot him. "I killed a white man in Alabama, that's the electric chair," Melvin tells his fiancee. "They gon' say you my accomplice." Melvin decides only one person can help them: his old college friend Kwame Nkrumah, who happens to be the president of Ghana. When Bernadette and Melvin, pretending to be a pastor and his wife, meet Kwesi Kwayson, a highlife musician, and find out he's scheduled to play a show for Nkrumah, they insist on tagging along, hoping the president can offer them protection. But Bernadette develops oddly instant feelings for Kwesi, writing in her diary, "I just met a man and it felt like an out of body experience. As if I had known him my whole life." Meanwhile, an FBI agent named Hughes travels to Ghana, hoping to apprehend the couple he just missed arresting in the States. Bazawule renders the cat-and-mice aspect of the novel well; a filmmaker, he's gifted at narrative pacing. Unfortunately, that's the only part of the book that works. His adjective-heavy writing is stilted and awkward, and he makes frequent use of clich�d phrases like "The day began like any other" and overly expository formulations like "At that moment, he concocted a plan that would have far-reaching consequences." In several passages, he takes jarring detours into magical realism that feel out of place, throwing the reader out of the narrative, and he indulges heavily in melodrama, making the novel resemble a bizarre soap opera. The result is a book that feels like a screenplay that's been wrestled, awkwardly, into prose. This doesn't seem like a finished novel so much as an underedited first draft of one. The book offers suspense but nothing else.
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May 6, 2022
DEBUT Filmmaker, painter, and musician Bazawule makes his writing debut with a fast-paced story set in the 1960s. Melvin and Bernadette are on the run after an incident in a diner in segregated Alabama. They flee to Ghana to escape the predicament that could land them both in jail or worse. Melvin poses as a pastor, Bernadette as his wife. They chose Ghana because the nation's president, Kwame Nkrumah, attended university with Melvin in the States, and Melvin saved Nkrumah's life during a college prank. Melvin now seeks out Nkrumah for a return favor. As the story unfolds, readers learn details of the situation in Alabama and about an FBI agent who is tracking down Bernadette and Melvin. In Ghana, Melvin and Bernadette are assisted by a famous Ghanian musician. VERDICT This story has magic, political conspiracy, and romance, along with the historical elements of the U.S. civil rights movement and Ghanian colonization. It will appeal to readers of many genres who enjoy an eccentric cast of characters in a vibrant historical setting.--Lacy Wolfe
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