Charles Fuller talks about SNATCH:The Adventures of David and Me in Old New York

After 40-years of work in film and theater acclaimed screenwriter and playwright Charles Fuller launches his first novel, SNATCH: The Adventures of David and Me in Old New York. Well-known for A Soldier’s Play which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1982) and his Academy Award nominated film, A Soldier’s Story, (1985) which garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture and a nomination for Best Screenplay for Mr. Fuller. This new exciting children’s book debuts on June 2, 2010.

SNATCH fulfills a promise Mr. Fuller made to his now middle-aged sons Charles III and David Ira Fuller nearly a half century ago, that he would create a story in which the two of them would be the heroes in a historical adventure during the turbulent times in New York before slavery was abolished.

Set in “Five Points” a notorious neighborhood in New York City in 1838, Snatch is a tale about two brothers, David and Charles, “free” black kids, who while fishing in the Hudson River on a day in September meet and help a fugitive slave, Freddie Johnson elude a gang of slave catchers led by a mysterious man called “Snatch.” Over thirty-six hours, the two brothers engineer a wild chase and escape through the streets and tunnels of Old New York helped by the “Brewery Witches,” a trio of girls from the neighborhood.

Mr. Fuller’s rich, multi-layered children’s adventure novel provides a glimpse into the little known history of life for free blacks in antebellum New York during the 1830s. Both historically authentic and entertaining, “Snatch” is a must read for book lovers of all ages.