Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’: New Book Looks Back at the Making of a Game-Changer

A new book, Days of Miracle and Wonder: Paul Simon and the Trials and Triumphs of Graceland, written by Grammy winner Ashley Kahn, has been published by Atria Books. Described in a pre-publication announcement as “the first book to tell the full story of Graceland,” the 320-page volume, it says, “offer[s] windows into Simon’s creative process and the technical innovations that brought them to life.” The August 11, 2026, title, pegged to the album’s 40th anniversary, is available in the U.S. here, in Canada here and in the U.K. here.

The press release continues: “Drawn from extensive research and exclusive interviews with nearly 100 participants and witnesses including musicians, producers, engineers, record executives and journalists, Days of Miracle and Wonder 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.”

In 1984, it says, “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. 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 across New York, Los Angeles, Louisiana, and London, and eventually to the release of Graceland on Aug. 25, 1986, a critical and commercial triumph, winning multiple Grammys, selling 16 million records, and spawning a five-year, worldwide tour.”

Related: Our Album Rewind of Graceland

Author Kahn won a Grammy in 2026 for Best Album Notes. He is a music historian, author and producer. He was also was a member of the Graceland/Paul Simon tour production team, and tour manager for Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Kahn also cowrote Carlos Santana’s autobiography The Universal Tone, and has written books on such recordings as Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane. He teaches at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music.

Watch author Ashley Kahn receive the 2026 Grammy award for his liner notes for Miles Davis’ Miles ’55: The Prestige Recordings.