Paths of Sanctuary

by Ihsan Bracy

Overview

Fiction. African American Studies. PATHS OF SANCTUARY is a magical-realism novel which traces the life of an African-American family from enslavement in 1796 through post reconstruction to its eventual settling in Sanctuary, a small mountain village situated geographically just below the first gates of heaven. The novel centers on the forbidden commingling of the people of clay (man) with the people of fire (angels) and the friction that occurs whenever two bordering cultures co-exist. Told in an almost lyrical narrative, PATHS OF SANCTUARY explores the hidden complexities discovered within family, including the trials found within infidelity, friendship and love. Ihsan Bracy is a former member of the New York State Council of the Arts and former chair of the Theatre Department of Talent Unlimited High School, NYC's second largest performing arts high school. A spoken word and Brooklyn based artist, Ihsan has performed all across the city including a long running appearance at The Triad as part of composer Michael Raye's Soul Gathering.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781887276498
Publisher:	Cool Grove Press
Publication date:	02/25/2008
Pages:	322
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Paths of Sanctuary is author Ihsan Bracy's second work of fiction with Cool Grove Press (Feb. 2008). His first book Ibo Landing: an offering of short stories, (CGP 1998) is scheduled to be work-shopped by NYU in preparation for an upcoming Broadway run by The Mirror Repertory Company where Ihsan is the Arts and Education Coordinator. A former member of The Family (La Familia) Inc., his credits include prolonged theatre workshops at Bayview Correctional Facility for Women, the Spofford Home for Juveniles and Riker's Island, which culminated in a forty prison inner city tour. Ihsan directed Juan Shamsul Alam's Benpires which received a Pulitzer Prize nomination in theatre.

Editorial Reviews

What happens when people of the clay (humans) and people of the sky (angels) mate? Set initially in Africa but primarily in an African American community located below the gates of heaven, this debut novel traces the uneasy interactions of humans, spirits, and halflings. This literary commingling of fantasy and magical realism requires complete suspension of disbelief, beginning with a newborn babe's being raised in the deep by a pod of dolphins. The characters, who are at least part spirit, have names like Time, Power, Dance, Silence, Passage, Chance, and Blue River and are all fascinating in their powers and flaws. The human characters are utterly human and equally flawed. Those flaws and a variety of misunderstandings all drive the story toward an inevitable series of tragedies. Bracy's prose is both mystical and muscular and therefore utterly appropriate. The one quibble is that eschewing capitalization and quotation marks became old hat 40 years ago and now seems like a hackneyed postmodernist trick. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries but not for "gentle readers."
—Jim Dwyer

Library Journal