Spring of '67. America is on fire, rocked by race riots and protests against the Vietnam War. In New York, several musicians related to the "new thing", the free jazz of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp or Bill Dixon, appeared

They are dead in strange and violent circumstances. In the Black Power ghettos there is talk of a murderer called The Son of Whiteman. Really exist? And, if so, is he acting on his behalf or is he merely a tool of a frightened "establishment"? Meanwhile, John Coltrane, warrior and guardian of the spirits in that extremely free outpost of black culture, reviews his life in a harsh and poetic soliloquy. A reel slips into the Butoba MT5 tape recorder of Sonia Langmut, a young chronicler of the "new thing". And a cloud of memories, characters and smoke is unleashed in the ghostly solo of a sax.

Polyphonic investigation, detective plot, political jam session... "New Thing" is Wu Ming 1's first solo novel.

"'New Thing' is received as a breath of fresh air in a room closed for decades. The author demonstrates not only an encyclopedic knowledge of African-American music but also of what has given life to that artistic expression. The struggles for the civil rights, anti-racist riots,

the desire for social vindication and justice, the hopes and suffering of an entire militant generation. Wu Ming 1 speaks of it with the affection that is shown after a long relationship with that world and with its expressive codes, and reading we feel part of the same enthusiasm, we feel the breath of novelty. "La Stampa

"Wu Ming 1 uses elaborate structure and language to make a highly ambitious musical and political novel... A gripping novel that goes beyond ?free jazz'."

Le Monde