Available June 11th, 2026!
L'il Sis and Nooj
Written & Published by Jeff Houlahan
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L'il Sis and Nooj is about a gifted guitarist and a transcendent blues singer in 1930s Harlem, who rise from the violent underworld of numbers runners to electrify the Chitlin’ Circuit - until fame, betrayal, and a devastating accident force them to confront an indifferent society determined to erase black women.
Harlem in the 1930’s is a rough but exciting place. The hundred blocks scissored between 110th and 155th are an explosive mix of rage and joy that will birth some of the greatest art in American history. It’s a tough demanding world and even tougher if you’re a woman.
In the spring of 1930, twenty-year-old Eve “L’il Sis” LeGrand arrives in Harlem with a guitar, a stubborn faith in her talent, and nowhere else to go. Within a week, she’s hiding under a bar room table beside Nadine “Nooj” Holloway as gunfire tears through the club. By morning, Eve has followed Nooj into Harlem’s dangerous underworld of numbers runners, drug turf wars - and music that feels like revelation. |
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In those first days, Nooj and Eve discover that each has a glorious talent but together they are transcendent. It’s not that Nooj can sing like Lady Day and L’il Sis can play like Charlie Patton, it’s that what they create together is something new.
For the next several decades we follow L’il Sis and Nooj - in the early years when their band, the Shuffle Kings, travel the Chitlin circuit and the later years, after a devastating event breaks up the band. The novel is loosely inspired by a story published in 2014 in The New York Times magazine called The Ballad of Geeshie and Elvie about two lost blues singers of the early 1900’s. It’s a reminder that our lives are smaller for the works of genius lost to prejudice, ignorance and feckless time. L’il Sis and Nooj will appeal to readers of Half-Blood Blues and The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, combining lost musical genius with a fierce portrait of a black female artistic partnership. L’il Sis and Nooj is a literary historical novel at ~175,000 words. |
eBook & Paperback Available June 11th
We are offering a pay-what-you-want option for the eBook
because we don't want the cost of the book to be a barrier to reading it. Enjoy.
because we don't want the cost of the book to be a barrier to reading it. Enjoy.
The PAPERBACK version (620 pages) will be available from Amazon on June 11th.
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