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The Homewood Trilogy
From “master of language” ( The New York Times ) John Edgar Wideman, a reissue of the revered trilogy that launched his career—two novels and story collection all set in Wideman’s own hometown.
Damballah, Hiding Place , and Sent for You Yesterday provide a stunning introduction to the uncompromising work of John Edgar Wideman, whose literary achievements have inspired The New York Times to name him “one of America’s premier writers of fiction.”
Damballah ’s narratives examine the vexed history of Homewood, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania neighborhood whose origins are rooted in a time when slavery was still legal in the United States of America. The novels Hiding Place and Sent for You Yesterday personalize and interrogate that history’s presence in the contemporary lives of Homewood people and all Americans.
Deeply concerned that designations such as “economically oppressed” or “Black” continue to dismiss and marginalize rather than embrace communities like the one in which he was raised, John Edgar Wideman—employing words on the page as his weapon—has dedicated himself to recording the weight, beauty, complexity, and justice that he believes Homewood’s voices, stories, and lives have earned and deserve.
In 1983, The Homewood Trilogy signaled the arrival of a major voice in American literature. Forty years later, this edition of the Trilogy celebrates Wideman’s ongoing contribution by offering these masterworks to a new generation of readers.
Damballah, Hiding Place , and Sent for You Yesterday provide a stunning introduction to the uncompromising work of John Edgar Wideman, whose literary achievements have inspired The New York Times to name him “one of America’s premier writers of fiction.”
Damballah ’s narratives examine the vexed history of Homewood, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania neighborhood whose origins are rooted in a time when slavery was still legal in the United States of America. The novels Hiding Place and Sent for You Yesterday personalize and interrogate that history’s presence in the contemporary lives of Homewood people and all Americans.
Deeply concerned that designations such as “economically oppressed” or “Black” continue to dismiss and marginalize rather than embrace communities like the one in which he was raised, John Edgar Wideman—employing words on the page as his weapon—has dedicated himself to recording the weight, beauty, complexity, and justice that he believes Homewood’s voices, stories, and lives have earned and deserve.
In 1983, The Homewood Trilogy signaled the arrival of a major voice in American literature. Forty years later, this edition of the Trilogy celebrates Wideman’s ongoing contribution by offering these masterworks to a new generation of readers.
- GenresFiction
576 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
About the author
John Edgar Wideman
101 books414 followersA widely-celebrated writer and the winner of many literary awards, he is the first to win the International PEN/Faulkner Award twice: in 1984 for Sent for You Yesterday and in 1990 for Philadelphia Fire. In 2000 he won the O. Henry Award for his short story "Weight", published in The Callaloo Journal.
In March, 2010, he self-published "Briefs," a new collection of microstories, on Lulu.com. Stories from the book have already been selected for the O Henry Prize for 2010 and the Best African-American Fiction 2010 award.
His nonfiction book Brothers and Keepers received a National Book Award. He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and much of his writing is set there, especially in the Homewood neighborhood of the East End. He graduated from Pittsburgh's Peabody High School, then attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he became an All-Ivy League forward on the basketball team. He was the second African-American to win a Rhodes Scholarship (New College, Oxford University, England), graduating in 1966. He also graduated from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Critics Circle nomination, and his memoir Fatheralong was a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the recipient of a MacArthur genius grant. Wideman was chosen as winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story in 1998, for outstanding achievement in that genre. In 1997, his novel The Cattle Killing won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction.
He has taught at the University of Wyoming, University of Pennsylvania, where he founded and chaired the African American Studies Department, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers. He currently teaches at Brown University, and he sits on the contributing editorial board of the literary journal Conjunctions.
In March, 2010, he self-published "Briefs," a new collection of microstories, on Lulu.com. Stories from the book have already been selected for the O Henry Prize for 2010 and the Best African-American Fiction 2010 award.
His nonfiction book Brothers and Keepers received a National Book Award. He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and much of his writing is set there, especially in the Homewood neighborhood of the East End. He graduated from Pittsburgh's Peabody High School, then attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he became an All-Ivy League forward on the basketball team. He was the second African-American to win a Rhodes Scholarship (New College, Oxford University, England), graduating in 1966. He also graduated from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Critics Circle nomination, and his memoir Fatheralong was a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the recipient of a MacArthur genius grant. Wideman was chosen as winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story in 1998, for outstanding achievement in that genre. In 1997, his novel The Cattle Killing won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction.
He has taught at the University of Wyoming, University of Pennsylvania, where he founded and chaired the African American Studies Department, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers. He currently teaches at Brown University, and he sits on the contributing editorial board of the literary journal Conjunctions.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 15, 2024
The Homewood Trilogy collect 3 of John Edgar’s works that are now considered a trilogy. This book has Damballah, Hiding Place and Sent For You Yesterday. All three books were very beautifully written and the author did a great job with storytelling. Although this isn’t something I would typically pick up, I did really enjoy reading this series of thought provoking books.
Thank you Scribner for sending me a copy of this book.
Thank you Scribner for sending me a copy of this book.
October 30, 2023
Out of print for 40 years, Wideman’s brilliant trio of books presents a kaleidoscopic panorama of his Pittsburgh neighborhood, described by one character as more than mere bricks and boards: “Homewood was them singing and loving and getting where they needed to get.” Written simultaneously, Damballah, The Hiding Place, and Sent for You Yesterday are not a trilogy in the conventional sense but a mosaic of stories and novels whose styles range from gritty vernacular and bluesy lyricism to Joycean stream-of-consciousness and objective reportage, reflecting the complexity and diversity of its subjects. Wideman’s relationship to his incarcerated brother, subsequently explored in his 1984 memoir Brothers and Keepers, looms large here in his unflinching depiction of persecuted fugitives past and present, while the author’s own self-imposed exile both enhances and complicates his efforts to bear witness to a culture and a way of life, as tributary to a flowing tradition of griots and musicians stretching back to Africa. Aptly described as an urban Black complement to Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha novels and a prose analogue to playwright August Wilson’s Pittsburgh-set “Century Cycle,” this masterly, transformative work of remembrance is nothing short of a masterpiece.
May 19, 2026
If James McBride never cracked a joke, he’s be John Edgar Wideman. Great dialogue and world-building, incredibly grim, the Homewood trilogy goes back and forth across five generations of a family trapped in a Pittsburgh slum. The first couple of generations manage to find jobs and build (or win) homes, then it all goes downhill to drugs and murder. I need something pinheaded to read now!
September 13, 2023
The Homewood Trilogy collects three of John Edgar Wideman's works together, Damballah, Hiding Place, and Sent for You Yesterday. Collectively they have come to be known as a trilogy and having them in one volume is an excellent opportunity to read or reread these classics.
I first read them shortly after they came out then not again until I studied them. Getting this volume gave me the opportunity to again read them for pleasure, though this time I had a much better grounding in what is being accomplished. A couple of his later works had become what I immediately thought of when I thought of his writing, and I am so happy to be reminded of just how good these are.
Depending on your own background, you can read them as the story of a community, over time and through many changes. You might read it as a microcosm of the Black experience in the United States. You can appreciate what they say about storytelling, the importance of the oral tradition both historically and within specific communities, even juxtaposed with written storytelling. Maybe you can relate to feeling outcast from your own community or having to do work to fit into your community. These are all themes, among others, that are explored here.
But what makes this trilogy so wonderful is that you can, and should, read them for the wonderful writing and storytelling. Simply enjoy them. Then let the thoughts they will likely generate for you lead you into considering whatever themes speak to you. Don't, in other words, read them to "get" any messages, read for the pleasure of the text and let the messages come to you naturally. Some of my takeaways from this reading are certainly different, because of where I am in my own life and where I perceive the world to be right now, than when I first read them several decades ago.
Highly recommended for both those who will want to reread these works as well as a great introduction to those new to Wideman. But don't stop here!
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
I first read them shortly after they came out then not again until I studied them. Getting this volume gave me the opportunity to again read them for pleasure, though this time I had a much better grounding in what is being accomplished. A couple of his later works had become what I immediately thought of when I thought of his writing, and I am so happy to be reminded of just how good these are.
Depending on your own background, you can read them as the story of a community, over time and through many changes. You might read it as a microcosm of the Black experience in the United States. You can appreciate what they say about storytelling, the importance of the oral tradition both historically and within specific communities, even juxtaposed with written storytelling. Maybe you can relate to feeling outcast from your own community or having to do work to fit into your community. These are all themes, among others, that are explored here.
But what makes this trilogy so wonderful is that you can, and should, read them for the wonderful writing and storytelling. Simply enjoy them. Then let the thoughts they will likely generate for you lead you into considering whatever themes speak to you. Don't, in other words, read them to "get" any messages, read for the pleasure of the text and let the messages come to you naturally. Some of my takeaways from this reading are certainly different, because of where I am in my own life and where I perceive the world to be right now, than when I first read them several decades ago.
Highly recommended for both those who will want to reread these works as well as a great introduction to those new to Wideman. But don't stop here!
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
May 23, 2026
Incredible book. It’s a study of a neighborhood through time told through the inhabitants. There’s lists of streets and precise locations and intersections but the only thing real about the Homewood Wideman describes is the people. The people and their stories make the setting. The three books weave together perfectly. They each offer a different feeling and it’s obvious they were written at least somewhat simultaneously. The structures of the stories are unique with levels of narrative layering and stripping away but it’s never too confusing to follow. It’s oral history put on paper. It reads like a late night conversation after a few too many at the bar. I love it
November 16, 2023
I never read anything by this author and this was a great and happy surprise as I discovered a master storyteller.
To review this book means writing a long essay and simply say that it's a thought provoking, enthralling and well written set of novels.
The style of writing and the storytelling are superb, that plot is tightly knitted and makes you think
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine
To review this book means writing a long essay and simply say that it's a thought provoking, enthralling and well written set of novels.
The style of writing and the storytelling are superb, that plot is tightly knitted and makes you think
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine
February 23, 2025
“Hiding Place” was masterful, “Damballah” very enjoyable. “Sent for You Yesterday” was a slog.
May 15, 2017
I loved this series of books. Read them years ago.
August 24, 2018
One of my favorite all-time collections. Wideman weaves these tales set after the Great Migration in Pittsburgh with a musicality akin to the dark and light shades of a Billy Strayhorn tone poem.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews