Vertaler: Peter de Rijk
Oorspronkelijke titel: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994)
Gebaseerd op ware feiten.
Non-fiction roman, de beste sinds Truman Capote's 'In koele bloede'
Non-fictie die leest als een sterke roman of een spannende thriller, als een geschiedenisverhaal en een liefdesverklaring aan de stad Savannah in Georgia.

Conditie van het boek: gelezen staat, lichte leesvouwen in de rug, verkleuring door veroudering,
randen kaft iets beschadigd, ex-libris vorige eigenaar.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a non-fiction novel by John Berendt. The book, Berendt's first, was published in 1994 and follows the story of an antiques dealer on trial for the murder of a male prostitute. Subtitled A Savannah Story, with an initial printing of 25,000 copies, the book became a New York Times Best-Seller for 216 weeks following its debut and remains the longest-standing New York Times Best-Seller.

The book was made into Clint Eastwood's 1997 film adaptation, with several characters' names changed to protect their privacy.

In tone, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is atmospherically Deep South coastal (Savannah, Georgia, and Beaufort, South Carolina) and Southern Gothic, depicting a wide range of eccentric personalities in and around the city of Savannah, Georgia.

The central narrative concerns the shooting of Danny Hansford, a local male prostitute (characterized as "a good time not yet had by all" by Prentiss Crowe, a Savannah socialite), by respected antiques dealer Jim Williams, who was also his employer. This resulted in four murder trials, with the fourth ending in acquittal after the judge finally agreed to a change of venue to move the case away from the Savannah jury pool. The book describes Williams' version of the killing, which is that it was in "self-defense"—the result of Hansford, who was prone to fits of rage, shooting at Williams with a gun that was on display, and Williams shooting back to protect himself—and not murder, pre-meditated or otherwise, by Williams. The death occurred in Williams' home, Mercer House.

The book highlights many other notable Savannah residents as well, including The Lady Chablis, a local transgender woman, club performer, and entertainer. Chablis provides both a Greek chorus of sorts as well as a light-hearted contrast to the more serious action. Chablis was given a dedicated chapter, as was Emma Kelly, the "lady of 6,000 songs.”
The title alludes to the hoodoo notion of "midnight," the period between the time for good magic (11:30 P.M. to midnight) and the time for evil magic (midnight to 12:30 A.M.).

Although Bonaventure Cemetery is the focus in the book, "the garden of good and evil" refers principally to the cemetery in Beaufort, South Carolina, where Dr. Louis Buzzard, the husband of Minerva, the folk-magic practitioner who figures in the story, is buried. It is over his grave that Minerva performed the incantations to ensure a more successful result in the retrial for the case of Jim Williams. (The marriage between Minerva and Dr. Buzzard was the invention of John Berendt. Dr. Buzzard was based on Stephen Robinson, who died in 1947, aged 86.)

Berendt's second book, The City of Falling Angels, was published in September 2005. It chronicles interwoven lives in Venice in the aftermath of the fire that destroyed the La Fenice opera house. According to Kirkus Reviews, "Berendt does great justice to an exalted city that has rightly fascinated the likes of Henry James, Robert Browning, and many filmmakers throughout the world."
(bron: Wikipedia)

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