Beetlecreek
A Novel
Failed to add items
Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.
Add to basket failed.
Please try again later
Add to wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Remove from wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Adding to library failed
Please try again
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.00 for first 30 days
LIMITED TIME OFFER
Get 3 months for £0.99/mo
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.
Beetlecreek
Narrated by:
Dominic Hoffman
Pre-order Now for £12.99
-
Narrated by:
-
Dominic Hoffman
About this listen
After several years of seclusion in the Black quarter of Beetlecreek, West Virginia, in the precarious 1930s, a retired carnival worker named Bill Trapp strikes up a chance friendship with Johnny Johnson, a Pittsburgh teenager transplanted into his uncle’s home. Bill is white. Johnny is Black. Both are searching for something that will give meaning to their lives. While Bill tries to court favor in the community, Johnny joins a local gang; meanwhile, their new friendship kindles hope that there is something for each of them beyond the bounds of Beetlecreek. But as the church society’s Fall Festival approaches, the battle between the repressive town and the aspirations of its trapped inhabitants comes to a nail-biting head.
First published in 1950, Beetlecreek stands as a moving condemnation of provincialism and fundamentalism, and a classic of Black American literature. Both a critique of racial hypocrisy and a new direction for the African American novel, it occupied fresh territory for its time: neither the gritty realism of Richard Wright nor the ironic modernism of Ralph Ellison.
Cover image: Blue Madonna (detail), 1961, by Bob Thompson; Collection: Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI. Gift of Edward Levine in memory of Bob Thompson (F1983.57); Credit: © Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY, Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY
Critic reviews
“One of the great novelists of the last 100 years.”—Ishmael Reed, author of Mumbo Jumbo
“[Demby is] a true artist.” —Arna Bontemps, author of Black Thunder
“[A] quiet masterpiece.” –Kirkus Reviews
“[Demby is] a true artist.” —Arna Bontemps, author of Black Thunder
“[A] quiet masterpiece.” –Kirkus Reviews
No reviews yet