Description

Book Synopsis
The pioneering novel of physical disability, transatlantic travel, and black international politics. A vital document of black modernism and one of the earliest overtly queer fictions in the African American tradition. Published for the first time.

A Penguin Classic

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice/Staff Pick
Vulture's Ten Best Books of 2020 pick

Buried in the archive for almost ninety years, Claude McKay's Romance in Marseille traces the adventures of a rowdy troupe of dockworkers, prostitutes, and political organizers--collectively straight and queer, disabled and able-bodied, African, European, Caribbean, and American. Set largely in the culture-blending Vieux Port of Marseille at the height of the Jazz Age, the novel takes flight along with Lafala, an acutely disabled but abruptly wealthy West African sailor. While stowing away on a transatlantic freighter, Lafala is discovered and locked in a frigid closet. Badly fro

Trade Review
Claude McKay's poetry was one of the great forces in bringing about what is often called the 'Negro Literary Renaissance' -- James Weldon Johnson
I loved Claude McKay's Romance in Marseille, so witty and so precise, a little instrument for imagining another kind of modernist history -- Adam Thirlwell * The White Review *

Romance in Marseille Penguin Classics

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    A Paperback / softback by Claude McKay

    £11.69

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    RRP £12.99 – you save £1.30 (10%)

    Order before 4pm today for delivery by Tue 29 Sep 2026.

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      Book details

      Publisher Penguin Random House Group
      Imprint Penguin Classics
      Published 7 May 2020
      ISBN-13 9780143134220
      978-0143134220
      ISBN-10 0143134221

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      The pioneering novel of physical disability, transatlantic travel, and black international politics. A vital document of black modernism and one of the earliest overtly queer fictions in the African American tradition. Published for the first time.

      A Penguin Classic

      A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice/Staff Pick
      Vulture's Ten Best Books of 2020 pick

      Buried in the archive for almost ninety years, Claude McKay's Romance in Marseille traces the adventures of a rowdy troupe of dockworkers, prostitutes, and political organizers--collectively straight and queer, disabled and able-bodied, African, European, Caribbean, and American. Set largely in the culture-blending Vieux Port of Marseille at the height of the Jazz Age, the novel takes flight along with Lafala, an acutely disabled but abruptly wealthy West African sailor. While stowing away on a transatlantic freighter, Lafala is discovered and locked in a frigid closet. Badly fro

      Trade Review
      Claude McKay's poetry was one of the great forces in bringing about what is often called the 'Negro Literary Renaissance' -- James Weldon Johnson
      I loved Claude McKay's Romance in Marseille, so witty and so precise, a little instrument for imagining another kind of modernist history -- Adam Thirlwell * The White Review *

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