Pushkin and the Queen of Spades: A Novel [Paperback]

Windsor Armstrong has a problem: her brilliant boy, Pushkin X, has become a football superstar and is planning to marry a Russian lap dancer. In Windsor's opinion, Pushkin is throwing away every good thing she has given him. When she was an unwed teen mother, Windsor attended Harvard, leaving her shady Detroit roots behind. She raised her son to be fiercely intelligent, well-spoken, and proud. Now he lives for pro football and a white woman of no account. Outraged by her son's decisions but devoted to loving him right, Windsor prepares to give up her last secret: the identity of Pushkin's father.

An utterly different, impressively original novel of ideas. --Ben Dickinson Elle

Her Margaret Mitchell parody kicked up a firestorm. Now she returns with a bold new novel. --Troy Patterson Entertainment Weekly

Randall lays bare racism and class consciousness (both black and white) with ruthless wit and riveting style. --Cathleen Medwick O, The Oprah Magazine

“[Alice Randall’s] new novel is an impassioned aria . . . stunningly gutsy, literate and original.” --Heller McAlpin Los Angeles Times

Linguistically exuberant . . . The heart of the tale is in the lyricism of the telling. --Darryl Lorenzo Wellington The Washington Post

Randall is a marvelous writer. . . . Pushkin and the Queen of Spades is a perfect book-club selection. --Rebecca L. Ford The Chicago Tribune

“Randall’s novel is encyclopedic in its forms, stories, and range of emotions. . . . [Her] characters live and tell amazing stories.” --Mary A. McCay, chairwoman of the Loyola University English department, The Times-Picayune

Unyielding in its intensity. . . . this is intentionally provocative stuff, designed to open your eyes and make your heart burn.” --Barbara Lloyd McMichael Seattle Times/Post-Intelligencer