<DIV>A darling and brilliant new novel that explores race and class in the 1950s America. <BR /><BR /> The war is over, the soldiers are returning, and Nat King Cole is back in his home town of Montgomery, Alabama, for a rare performance. His childhood friend, Nat Weary, plans to propose to his sweetheart, and the singer will honor their moment with a special song. But while the world has changed, segregated Jim Crow Montgomery remains the same. When a white man attacks Cole with a pipe, Weary leaps from the audience to defend him - an act that will lead to a 10-year prison sentence. <BR /><BR /> But the singer will not forget his friend and the sacrifice he made. Six months before Weary is released, he receives a remarkable offer: he will be Nat King Cole's driver and bodyguard. It is the promise of a new life removed from the terror, violence, and degradation of Jim Crow Alabama. <BR /><BR /> Weary discovers that, while in Los Angeles is far different from the deep South, it is a place of discrimination, mistrust, and intolerance where a black man - even one as talented and popular as Nat King Cole - is not wholly welcome.<BR /><BR /> An indelible portrait of prejudice and promise, friendshit and loyalty, Driving the King is a daring look at race and class in pre-Civil Rights America, played out in the lives of two remarkable men. </DIV>