I Am Not Sidney Poitier: A Novel

Percival Everett

Sep 2023 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Amir Abdullah

About this audiobook

I Am Not Sidney Poitier is an irresistible comic novel from the master storyteller Percival Everett I was, in life, to be a gambler, a risk-taker, a swashbuckler, a knight. I accepted, then and there, my place in the world. I was a fighter of windmills. I was a chaser of whales. I was Not Sidney Poitier. Not Sidney Poitier is an amiable young man in an absurd country. The sudden death of his mother orphans him at age eleven, leaving him with an unfortunate name, an uncanny resemblance to the famous actor, and, perhaps more fortunate, a staggering number of shares in the Turner Broadcasting Corporation. Percival Everett's hilarious new novel follows Not Sidney's tumultuous life, as the social hierarchy scrambles to balance his skin color with his fabulous wealth. Maturing under the less-than watchful eye of his adopted foster father, Ted Turner, Not gets arrested in rural Georgia for driving while black, sparks a dinner table explosion at the home of his manipulative girlfriend, and sleuths a murder case in Smut Eye, Alabama, all while navigating the recurrent communication problem: "What's your name?" a kid would ask. "Not Sidney," I would say. "Okay, then what is it?"

About the author

Percival Everett is the author of more than twenty books, including The Trees, Telephone, So Much Blue, and Percival Everett by Virgil Russell. He is the recipient of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the PEN Center USA Award for Fiction. He teaches at the University of Southern California and lives outside Los Angeles.

Amir Abdullah is an actor, playwright, and audiobook narrator residing in Los Angeles. He is a four-time Golden Earphone Award winner and an ALSC Notable Children's Recording recipient.