Description
Telegraph Avenue is a literary novel set in Oakland, California, in the summer of 2004. Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe run Brokeland Records, a small shop specialising in classic vinyl soul and jazz, while their wives, Gwen and Aviva, work together as midwives. Their tightly connected lives are thrown into turmoil when former star quarterback Gibson Goode announces plans to open a Dogpile megastore on Telegraph Avenue, threatening their business and the community around it.
As Archy and Nat fight to protect their shop, Gwen and Aviva face a professional conflict of their own, testing their long friendship. Meanwhile, the arrival of Titus Joyner, Archy’s teenage son whom he has never acknowledged, brings another complicated family relationship into the mix. Music, friendship, marriage, fatherhood and community all collide in Michael Chabon’s richly detailed portrait of life on one Oakland street.
