Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Gilbert King Comes to St. Petersburg

Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Gilbert King Comes to St. Petersburg

King discusses his new book Beneath a Ruthless Sun

in conversation with Bob Devin Jones & Colette Bancroft

St. Petersburg’s newest independent bookstore Tombolo Books is bringing Pulitzer Prize winning author Gilbert King to town! The bookstore is collaborating with Bob Devin Jones at the Studio@620 to celebrate the release of King’s newest book, Beneath a Ruthless Sun. King will appear in conversation with both Bob Devin Jones and Colette Bancroft of the Tampa Bay Times. 

When: Sunday, August 5. From 5 pm-5:30 there will be a reception with light snacks and a cash bar. Book talk, Q&A and signing to follow.

Where: The Studio@620

About Beneath a Ruthless Sun (from the publisher): In December 1957, the wife of a Florida citrus baron is raped in her home while her husband is away. She claims a “husky Negro” did it, and the sheriff, the infamous racist Willis McCall, does not hesitate to round up a herd of suspects. But within days, McCall turns his sights on Jesse Daniels, a gentle, mentally impaired white nineteen-year-old. Soon Jesse is railroaded up to the state hospital for the insane, and locked away without trial. But crusading journalist Mabel Norris Reese cannot stop fretting over the case and its baffling outcome. Who was protecting whom, or what? She pursues the story for years, chasing down leads, hitting dead ends, winning unlikely allies. Bit by bit, the unspeakable truths behind a conspiracy that shocked a community into silence begin to surface. Beneath a Ruthless Sun tells a powerful, page-turning story rooted in the fears that rippled through the South as integration began to take hold, sparking a surge of virulent racism that savaged the vulnerable, debased the powerful, and roils our own times still.

The bookstore requests that you please purchase a copy from Tombolo Books if you plan on attending the event. If you own other books by Gilbert King you are welcome to bring those as well. PRE-ORDERS ARE ENCOURAGED AND REWARDED!

To order call (727) 755-9456 or e-mail alsace@tombolobooks.com