A vital new non-fiction collection from one of the most celebrated and revered writers of our timeWord-work is sublime, she thinks, because it is generative; it makes meaning that secures our difference, our human differencethe way in which we are like no other life. We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.The Nobel Lecture in Literature, 1993Spanning four decades, these essays, speeches and meditations interrogate the world around us. They are concerned with race, gender and globalisation. The sweep of American history and the current state of politics. The duty of the press and the role of the artist. Throughout A Mouth Full of Blood our search for truth, moral integrity and expertise is met by Toni Morrison with controlled anger, elegance and literary excellence.The collection is structured in three parts and these are heart-stoppingly introduced by a prayer for the dead of 9/11, a meditation on Martin Luther King and a eulog