Bitter Crop

The Heartache and Triumph of Billie Holiday's Last Year

By: Paul Alexander

Narrated by: Maya Days

A revelatory look at the tumultuous life of a jazz legend and American cultural icon

“A book written as only one artist could view another, with insight and sincere compassion.”—Sandra Cisneros, best-selling author of Woman Without Shame

In the first biography of Billie Holiday in more than two decades, Paul Alexander—author of heralded lives of Sylvia Plath and J. D. Salinger—gives us an unconventional portrait of arguably America’s most eminent jazz singer. He shrewdly focuses on the last year of her life—with relevant flashbacks to provide context—to evoke and examine the persistent magnificence of Holiday’s artistry when it was supposed to have declined, in the wake of her drug abuse, relationships with violent men, and run-ins with the law.

During her lifetime and after her death, Billie Holiday was often depicted as a down-on-her-luck junkie severely lacking in self-esteem. Relying on interviews with people who knew her, and new material unearthed in private collections and institutional archives, Bitter Crop—a reference to the last two words of Strange Fruit, her moving song about lynching—limns Holiday as a powerful, ambitious woman who overcame her flaws to triumph as a vital figure of American popular music.

©2024 Paul Alexander (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“The unfinished life of Billie Holiday haunts us. In Bitter Crop, Paul Alexander tells her story in a way that could put her soul and our questions to rest.”—Gloria Steinem, award-winning author and political activist

“Perhaps only in this century can we fully change the narrative of Billie Holiday. Billie was a trespasser of taboos, a woman of tenderness and terror, whose story is repeated again and again by working-class women of color. This is a heartfelt ballad of a book written as only one artist could view another, with insight and sincere compassion.”—Sandra Cisneros, best-selling author of Woman Without Shame

“Paul Alexander brought me right into the room with Billie Holiday. Despite all of her challenges, she remained determined to do what she absolutely had to do—sing! The book is filled with the irony of life—humor, sadness, and everything in between. A truly deep and inspiring work!”—Catherine Russell, Grammy Award–winning jazz artist