SOUTH KINGSTOWN — Renowned journalist Bill Fletcher Jr. will visit The Collective in Peace Dale Saturday to discuss his first-ever novel, a gripping murder mystery that deals with, among other issues, the complexities of race in the United States.
Set in 1970, “The Man Who Fell from the Sky” follows David Gomes, a Cape Verdean-American journalist, as he investigates a series of murders on Cape Cod.
“It begins with the murder of a construction contractor,” Fletcher explained Tuesday, “and it becomes obvious very quickly that this is a professional hit… there’s some very confusing things going on here.”
As his investigation unfolds, David encounters the racial tension between Cape Verdeans and African Americans, as he begins to grasp the complicated truth about his ancestry.
“The story he’s investigating has a very personal side to it he had not been anticipating,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher, a labor union and social justice activist, tackles a variety of issues within the novel, including issues of race and identity, and of justice versus revenge.
The story’s subtext, meanwhile, involves the transformation that took place in the 1970s among Cape Verdean Americans.
“The book, in some ways, is introducing the reader to Cape Verdeans,” Fletcher said, adding that he’s noticed a lack of familiarity with Cape Verdeans among people outside of New England.
In fact, Fletcher’s inspiration for the book came largely from his fascination with the Cape Verdean population in the U.S., which Fletcher said is often ignored in discussions about Black America.
“Issues of race and class, particularly, have been central to my life,” added Fletcher, who’s been active in the black freedom movement since his teenage years.
An island nation off the west coast of Africa, Cape Verde was part of the Portuguese Empire for more than 500 years, until 1975. Fletcher explained that Cape Verdeans were the first African people to come to the U.S. voluntarily, arriving with a very different history from those African Americans who descended from slaves.
It was during a meeting in Massachusetts in the 1980s with a group of Cape Verdeans that Fletcher realized just how deep the identity issue runs.
“Who was this African population who came here voluntarily, who did not want to identify in many cases with African Americans already here?” Fletcher recalled thinking. “My interest in the construction of race in the United States and why it was constructed really helped to shape this book.”
And that story of the construction of race could be best told, Fletcher thought, through fiction.
“There are a lot of people who don’t read nonfiction,” he said, “but they’re drawn in by fiction. And I wanted to get to them.”
He added that through fiction, he was able to demonstrate the issues he wanted to address in a way he wouldn’t have been able to through nonfiction; for example, he could show the struggle of weighing justice versus revenge.
“Without giving away the whole story, the antagonist is deeply moved by something that happened in his family,” Fletcher said. “So he embarks on these murders. Now, were they justified?”
Published last year by Hard Ball Press, “The Man Who Fell from the Sky” is Fletcher’s first novel.
“So it was a real learning experience for me,” said Fletcher, who until now has written mostly nonfiction.
And as readers arrive at the end of this first fiction work of his, Fletcher said he hopes they come away from it with an understanding of the complexity of race within the Western Hemisphere, and of how racism can be internalized by its victims.
“People talk about self-hatred,” he said. “I would hope people understand that it’s very complex.”
He added that he also wants his readers to recognize that racism doesn’t look the same everywhere.
More specifically, though, Fletcher said he hopes the book sparks in his readers “an interest in the Cape Verdean story,” and “a respect for their culture and history.”
Fletcher will speak this Saturday, Feb. 16, from 12 to 2 p.m. at The Collective in Peace Dale, where he’ll also be selling copies of “The Man Who Fell from the Sky.”
“I hope that people come,” Fletcher said, adding he looks forward to engaging in a dialogue with those in attendance. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
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