Discover Michael Ondaatje's debut novel, 'a beautifully detailed story, perhaps the finest jazz novel ever written' Sunday Times

Based on the life of cornet player Buddy Bolden, one of the legendary jazz pioneers of turn-of-the-twentieth-century New Orleans, Coming Through Slaughter is an extraordinary recreation of a remarkable musical life and a tragic conclusion. Through a collage of memoirs, interviews, imaginary conversations and monologues, Ondaatje builds a picture of a man who would work by day at a barber shop and by night unleash his talent to wild audiences who had never experienced such playing. But Buddy was also playing the field with two women, and inside his head was a ticking time-bomb which he was unable to stop.

About the Author
Michael Ondaatje is the author of seven novels; a memoir, Running in the Family; a non-fiction book on film, The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film; and several books of poetry, including The Cinnamon Peeler and Handwriting. The English Patient received the Booker Prize in 1992 and the Golden Man Booker in 2018, and was made into a film directed by Anthony Minghella. Anil's Ghost was awarded the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, the Giller Prize and the Prix Medicis. Born in Sri Lanka, Michael Ondaatje lives in Toronto.

Reviews
The downtown world of bars, whores, streetlife bursting with music is evoked so vividly, so pungently you seem to breathe in the atmosphere... I haven't been so excited by a new writer for a long time * Time Out *
A beautifully detailed story, perhaps the finest jazz novel ever written * Sunday Times *
Not only the best jazz novel ever written, but one of the best novels of any kind published in English in the last ten years * The Musician *
Michael Ondaatje is a novelist with the heart of a poet * Chicago Tribune *



Book Information
ISBN 9781784877828
Author Michael Ondaatje
Format Paperback
Page Count 176
Imprint Vintage Classics
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 127g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 11mm