Kill 'Em and Leave. Searching for the Real James Brown

He was known as the 'Godfather of Soul'. Others called him 'The Hardest Working Man in Show Business'. But who was the 'real' James Brown ? In Kill 'Em & Leave, award-winning novelist James McBride embarks on a personal journey to uncover the life and legacy of a soul genius. Yet this book is much more than just a biography : told through the lens of McBride's own background as an African-American and professional musician, it is also a stirring, lyrical account of the impact on popular music, and on the people around him, of one of the most influential and complicated figures of the twentieth century.