★美國Crown、英國Canongate二月出版
★美國Amazon暢銷個人傳記

「爵士是白人對黑人音樂的用詞，我稱我的音樂為黑人古典樂。」──妮娜‧西蒙

紀錄片導演麗茲‧賈柏斯（Liz Garbus）執導的《西蒙：女伶的靈魂》（What Happened, Miss Simone?）入圍2016年第88屆奧斯卡的最佳紀錄長片，敘述這位美國傳奇女歌手妮娜‧西蒙（Nina Simone）的生活與她的音樂。在六Ｏ年代，她用音樂回應美國社會的種族議題，致力透過音樂揭露美國社會當時的問題。

Inspired by the critically acclaimed Netflix documentaryWhat Happened, Miss Simone?, an intimate and vivid look at the legendary life of Nina Simone, the classically trained pianist who evolved into a chart-topping chanteuse and committed civil rights activist.

From music journalist and former Spin and Vibe editor-in-chief Alan Light comes a biography of incandescent soul singer and Black Power icon Nina Simone, one of the most influential, provocative, and least understood artists of our time. Drawn from a trove of rare archival footage, audio recordings and interviews (including Simone's remarkable private diaries), this nuanced examination of Nina Simone’s life highlights her musical inventiveness and unwavering quest for equality, while laying bare the personal demons that plagued her from the time of her Jim Crow childhood in North Carolina to her self-imposed exile in Liberia and Paris later in life.

Harnessing the singular voice of Miss Simone herself and incorporating candid reflections from those who knew her best, including her only daughter, Light brings us face to face with a legend, examining the very public persona and very private struggles of one of our greatest artists.

 

A veteran music journalist, ALAN LIGHT is the author of The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah" and Let's Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain. Light was previously the editor-in-chief of Vibe and Spin and a senior writer for Rolling Stone. He is also a frequent contributor to the New York Times.