Tom Piazza

Tom Piazza's novels include A Free State.

From his Q&A with Clea Simon:

Who in your latest book has surprised you most – and why?

My most recent novel, A FREE STATE, actually did start with a plan, which I had to dismantle completely before the thing came alive. But it really came alive, to the extent that everybody in the book surprised me. I had to let them surprise me, or the book would have been dead on arrival. That book was a very spooky experience to write, but I guess they all are. Maybe without revealing too much I can say that the narrator of the final chapter probably surprised me the most, just by appearing.

When and/or where is your latest book set and is there a story behind that setting?

A FREE STATE is set in Philadelphia, mostly, in 1855, and it deals with the moment when the argument over slavery was coming to a boil at the same time that blackface minstrelsy was the dominant form of popular entertainment. The central character is an escaped slave who is also a very brilliant musician. I had started...[read on]

Visit Tom Piazza's website.

--Marshal Zeringue