by Anthony Grooms (Author), Clarence Major (Foreword by), T. Geronimo Johnson (Afterword by)
"An incisive, gripping, and empathetic novel." -- Kirkus Reviews [starred review]
An engrossing novel based on the true story of the 1946 lynching of two Black couples in Georgia.
Witness to a lynching in 1946, Lonnie is compelled to understand the brutal event and investigate his own culpability. Set in Georgia and drawn from real events, Anthony Grooms imagines his story from the perspectives of both the victims and the perpetrators. The Vain Conversation depicts a conversation in which all Americans must be engaged. A foreword is provided by American poet, painter, and novelist Clarence Major. An afterward is written by T. Geronimo Johnson, the bestselling author of Welcome to Braggsville and Hold It 'Til It Hurts.
Author Biography
Anthony Grooms is the author of Bombingham and Trouble No More: Stories, both winners of the Lillian Smith Book Award for fiction. Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, he taught writing and American literature at universities in Ghana and Sweden and, since 1994, at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.