---
product_id: 180310714
title: "A Free State: A Novel"
brand: "harper perennial"
price: "Bs.112"
currency: BOB
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
category: "Book"
url: https://www.desertcart.bo/products/180310714-a-free-state-a-novel
store_origin: BO
region: Bolivia
---

# A Free State: A Novel

**Brand:** harper perennial
**Price:** Bs.112
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** A Free State: A Novel by harper perennial
- **How much does it cost?** Bs.112 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.bo](https://www.desertcart.bo/products/180310714-a-free-state-a-novel)

## Best For

- harper perennial enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted harper perennial brand quality
- Free international shipping included
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- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

Review
        	
        	
        		
        		
	        		
						
			        		&#x201C;Informed by history of a reviled and forgotten idiom, loving scholarship about the banjo, and the very passport to freedom of body and spirit, this beautiful writing finds echoes in conflicts that persist-envy, imitation, injustice, brutality, inequality-and ultimately offers hope. I urge you to read it for yourself.&#x201D; (Elvis Costello, NYPL Book Recommendation)
						    	
					    	
						
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        		From the Back Cover
        	
        	
        		
        		
	        		
						
			        		The author of City of Refuge returns with a startling novel of race, violence, and identity. The year is 1855. Blackface minstrelsy is the most popular form of entertainment in a nation about to be torn apart by the battle over slavery. Henry Sims, a fugitive slave and a brilliant musician, has escaped to Philadelphia, where he lives by his wits and earns money performing on the street. He is befriended by James Douglass&#x2014;leader of the Virginia Harmonists, a minstrel troupe struggling to compete with dozens of similar ensembles&#x2014;who senses that Henry&apos;s skill and magnetism could restore his show&apos;s sagging fortunes. The problem is that black performers are not allowed to appear onstage, even in Philadelphia. Together the two concoct a dangerous masquerade to protect Henry&apos;s identity, and he creates a sensation in his first appearances with the Harmonists. Yet even as the troupe&apos;s fortunes begin to improve, a brutal slave hunter named Tull Burton has been employed by Henry&apos;s former master to track down the runaway and retrieve him, dead or alive.A Free State is both a riveting chase novel and a searing parable of liberty and its costs. Charged with narrative tension and unforgettable characters, A Free State is a thrilling work by a novelist at the height of his powers.
						    	
					    	
						
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## Images

![A Free State: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41472jJunoL.jpg)
![A Free State: A Novel - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51D3J6clCgL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Vivid, Poignant and Authentic
  

*by F***H on February 11, 2016*









  
  
    This deceptively modest book, disguised as a picaresque tale, movingly captures the intertwined fear and exhilaration of life for a fugitive slave in 1850s Philadelphia, as well as the moral uncertainties and casual racism of whites who cross his path. Mr. Piazza, who is himself a musician, was inspired to frame this story against the vividly colorful syncopation of the minstrel shows that were immensely popular in the nineteenth century. His main character, Henry, an inspired banjo player finds temporary safety in a troupe of white black-face performers by blacking himself up and claiming to be a Mexican. In other hands, the absurdity of Henry's situation might have been laughable. In Mr. Piazza's, it is a deadly serious descent into the ambiguities of race and identity. The book's single weak spot is the demonically cliched slave hunter who dogs Henry's trail, a man whose unspeakable actions rather too obviously symbolize the fundamental barbarism of slavery. Apart from that, and occasionally some anachronistic language, Mr. Piazza has  done his historical homework: the ambiance of antebellum Philadelphia, the world of minstrelsy, and the pulsating anxiety of a freedom-seeker on the run all ring true. He descriptions of minstrel performances are dazzling.
  


### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Insight into minstrelsy
  

*by D***E on January 7, 2020*









  
  
    The author does a fine job of delving into the world of minstrelsy, which has been a topic of some discussion in these times when the subject of blackface has been in the news.  The characters are compelling and the story sadly believable.
  


### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Better each time you read
  

*by L***T on May 14, 2016*









  
  
    It is kind of like being on a train, starts slow and gradually gains speed until you want to read faster and faster, and then it ends and you think NO !!! Then you read a second time and the characters are like old friends and you still look forward to every page.  The qualifications for a good book, in my opinion, is that you learn something new with every reading.
  


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*Product available on Desertcart Bolivia*
*Store origin: BO*
*Last updated: 2026-03-01*