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Days of Miracle and Wonder: Paul Simon and the Trials and Triumphs of Graceland
Author(s): Ashley Kahn (Author)
- Publisher: Atria Books
- Publication Date: August 11, 2026
- Language: English
- Print length: 320 pages
- ISBN-10: 1668206757
- ISBN-13: 9781668206751
Book Description
In 1984, Paul Simon was at a professional and personal crossroads. His new marriage was failing and his career was in danger of stalling. He was forty-two, navigating a digital age, searching for inspiration in a scene driven by music videos, synthesizers, and drum machines.
Driving around that summer, a bootleg cassette of “township jive”—the street music of South Africa—kept him company. Lent to him by a friend, it reminded Simon of the sound and the joy of the early days of rock and roll. He began to invent his own lyrics to the groove, and became drawn to the idea of recording with the musicians on that tape. But South Africa was in the thrall of a racist apartheid system, and with economic and cultural boycotts in place, such an undertaking was risky. He grew determined to find the right conditions to allow for a collaboration.
Simon took a fateful trip to Johannesburg in 1985. It would turn out to be the first step on a musical journey that would lead him to New York, Los Angeles, Louisiana, and London, and eventually to the release of
Graceland, a critical and commercial triumph, winning multiple Grammys, selling 16 million records, and spawning a five-year, worldwide tour.Days of Miracle and Wonder is the first book to tell the full story of Graceland, offering windows into Simon’s creative process, the technical innovations that brought his songs to life, the people and places that made the album possible, the forces that helped the album achieve mainstream reach, and the controversies that the music raised—and which remain today. It sheds light on a period when America opened its doors to the sounds and styles of Africa and other faraway lands.
This is an informed, heartfelt celebration of Simon’s magnum opus, a recording forged in a tense cultural moment, but suffused with hope, change, and a sense of global connection.
Editorial Reviews
Review
—Wall Street Journal
“By bringing both [
Graceland’s] beauty and its uglier aspects into the light, Kahn, far from ruining its strange magic, has only made me appreciate the album’s intricacies and paradoxes all the more… Kahn lets his historical actors speak for themselves as often as possible, collecting a remarkably wide array of voices… Kahn’s book, echoing the album, is concerned above all with the beauty of human connection forged through music.”—New York Times
“Ashley Kahn is an excellent reporter and writer, and in
Days of Miracle and Wonder he chronicles in detail just what it took for Simon to produce Graceland… Kahn is especially good on the creative process, how collaborative Simon was, and how the album got engineered in the studio… Days of Miracle and Wonder captures a time when an album could have such an immense cultural and political impact.”—Air Mail (Editor’s Pick)
“A worthy and fascinating history of one of the most important albums of the 20th century… It is a life-affirming story that will appeal to a broad audience and have them replaying their favorite tracks. Against considerable odds,
Days of Miracle and Wonder is a joyous, triumphant book.”—Open Letters Review
“Kahn has produced what is likely to remain the definitive account of the album. It is comprehensive [and] intelligent… Lots of things are overrated, kid.
Graceland isn’t—and neither is the difficult history Kahn has written about it.”—Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
“This masterful account by veteran journalist and producer Kahn chronicles the making of this landmark work within the story of a pivotal time in Simon’s life. It is a multilayered, intricate examination… A dynamic addition to the Paul Simon bookshelf.”
“A no-stone-unturned history of the making of a magisterial record… A deeply researched, lively study of a beloved staple of world music.”
“A compelling appreciation of
Graceland and a deep dive into its production.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“An insider’s look that generously gathers us all.”
“[An] intricate making-of chronicle… Comprehensive.”
—
“Ashley Kahn’s
Days of Miracle and Wonder—like its subject, Paul Simon’s Graceland—represents a pinnacle of its form: a syncretic work of art that shows its author’s mastery of all of popular music’s moving parts: the musical, the technological, the historical, the socio-political, the commercial, the biographical. Like its subject, it delivers nuance and provocation. In the midst of larger struggles for rights, it asks what rights artists themselves have. And it shows that great art has unintended consequences beyond the conceptions and intentions of its creators.”—Dan Charnas, New York Times bestselling author of Dilla Time
“Great stories come alive with details and Kahn has a gold-digger’s eye for the gems that make this a gripping and inspiring book.
Graceland is now part of the world’s soundtrack, but learning how Simon brought it to life on disc and on stage, and how he dealt unflinchingly with the attacks and setbacks, is extraordinary and very moving. I thought I knew most of the story of Graceland, but that opinion shrank with every page I turned.”—Joe Boyd, acclaimed music producer and award-winning author of And the Roots of Rhythm Remain
“A great American songwriter, a joyful South African music, a repressive government, international protests, and 1980s attitudes produced a clash of art and ethics thoroughly documented by Ashley Kahn.”
“
Graceland remains one of the most intriguing (and misunderstood) of the blockbuster 1980s albums. It is immediately accessible, universally adored, and likely to endure forever. Ashley Kahn asks every question—political, musical, and aesthetic—that you might want answered about the record, its reception, and its legacy, with sensitive attention to detail, nuance and the artistic process.”—Matt Thorne, Booker Prize–nominated author of Prince: The Man and His Music
About the Author
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