Bands & Books Mixtape: Half Blood Blues

Our wonderful friends at Serpent's Tail have made a very special Bands & Books inspired mixtape for the Man Booker Prize nominated Half Blood Blues.  Come down to Bands & Books October  on Friday 21st October at the Victoria (map), from 7:30 to hear this and other book themed mixtapes, as well as hear from 3 incredible writers, 2 bands and DJs until 1AM!

You can’t escape your fate – but some records are worth risking everything for.
A playlist for HALF BLOOD BLUES – a story of jazz, Nazi Europe and betrayal.


‘Chip told us not to go out. Said, don’t you boys tempt the devil. But it been one brawl of a night, I tell you…’ The aftermath of the fall of Paris, 1940. Hieronymus Falk, a rising star on the jazz scene, was arrested in a cafe and never heard from again. At the time he was making a record with Louis Armstrong. He was twenty years old. He was a German citizen. And he was black.

Fifty years later, Sid, Hiero’s bandmate and the only witness that day, is going back to Berlin where he and Hiero met. A mysterious letter, bringing to the surface secrets buried since Hiero’s fate was settled. In Half Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan weaves the horror of betrayal, the burden of loyalty and the possibility that, if you don’t tell your story, someone else might tell it for you. And they just might tell it wrong…

The artists on this playlist inspired HALF BLOOD BLUES – these songs are the musical ghosts of Europe’s dark years.
Author BiographyEsi Edugyan has degrees from the University of Victoria and Johns Hopkins University. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Best New American Voices 2003. Her debut novel, written when she was 25, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, was published internationally. She currently lives in Victoria, British Columbia.