The Ballad of Black Tom: The 'ingenious' retelling of H.P. Lovecraft's The Horror at Red Hook from the award-winning horror author

THE BALLAD OF BLACK TOM is a retelling and reclamation of H.P. Lovecraft's most xenophobic story, THE HORROR AT RED HOOK, from the perspective of a black man. Set in 1920s Harlem, a hustler and musician known as Tommy trades in illicit occult items. When he agrees to deliver a magical tome to a secretive sorceress, he gains the attention of dangerous and incomprehensible beings that are best left slumbering.

The Sleeping King rests at the bottom of the ocean.
The Sleeping King slumbers on the other side of the door.
The Sleeping King is dead but dreaming.

In New York City, at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table and keep a roof over his father's head.
He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the glamour written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops.
But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic and earns the attention of things best left alone. There is something ancient and hungry that sleeps just on the other side of reality and must never be woken.

A tempest that might swallow the world is building in Brooklyn, and Black Tom is trapped in the eye of the storm. Will he live to see it break?

The Ballad of Black Tom is an atmospheric historical horror which reimagines and reclaims the Lovecraftian Mythos.

'This ingenious recasting of an H.P. Lovecraft classic is as creepy as it is thought-provoking.' People

'Stands on its own as a compelling weird tale of Jazz-age New York City, but its penetrating examination of Lovecraft's creations and how they reflect racism's profound influence on our cultural imagination is where it really shines.' Slate

'LaValle's novella of sorcery and skullduggery in Jazz Age New York is a magnificent example of what weird fiction can and should do.' Laird Barron