Blue Night

About the Book

In the fall of 1957, the United States lost its self-assurance. That summer, the Soviet Union had successfully tested an ICBM. Then, in October, it launched Sputnik. For the first time, the U.S. as a society faced death as an imminent threat. Blue Night takes place within the context of that lost self-assurance. It traces an evening and night in the lives of four people in New York on October 25, 1957: a jazz musician, a Palestinian refugee, a school teacher, and a woman of means. It is a book about the crossing of their lives, about the city, and about a night.

About the Author

Todd May is the author of six books of philosophy and co-editor of a book on the Middle East. His most recent book, Gilles Deleuze: An Introduction, is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press. His books often explore questions of who we are and how we are to live together. May grew up in New York City, and has played jazz saxophone, trekked in the Sahara Desert, written and spoken on Palestine, and tutored in public schools. He currently lives in South Carolina. This is his first novel.