A new day for ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’

When “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” went to print in 1994, author John Berendt decided there would be no photos in the true-crime book.

“I wanted the action and descriptions of characters to be accomplished by my words,” Berendt says. “I didn’t want people flipping to a bunch of photos that would have shown the character smiling or whatever, when in the book the character goes through all kinds of moods. With words, I would control those mental pictures.”

Two decades later and Berendt is agreeing to include the very thing he didn’t originally want for his classic. And agreeing to a whole lot more.

“Midnight” marks the first release for Metabook, a company that seeks to enhance the digital reading experience. Berendt and the creators behind this innovative app platform will appear at several events in Kansas City next week to discuss the launch.

“Why the change?” the Pulitzer Prize finalist asks. “Because of what’s happened in between. When you’re reading a paperback now with no photographs about a person or a place, you can Google it and see it so easily.”

He describes the Metabook version of “Midnight” as “technologically dazzling.” Highlights include:

▪ Audio dramatization of the text, starring actors Dylan Baker (“The Good Wife”) as central character Jim Williams and Laverne Cox (“Orange Is the New Black”) as Lady Chablis.

▪ A 360-degree panorama of the “Garden of Good and Evil” in Savannah, Ga.

▪ 3-D rendering of the Bird Girl statue that graces the book’s cover.

▪ An Architectural Digest spread of the Mercer House, where the crime occurred.

▪ E-postcards from the Bonaventure Cemetery.

▪ Audio recordings of Williams.

▪ Exclusive interviews.

▪ Original music.

▪ Character updates and anecdotes.

▪ And plenty of photos.

“I was bowled over by the quality,” Berendt says. “I thought this was a very dramatic and daring enterprise.”

Benjamin Alfonsi, creative director of Metabook, is the man responsible for that quality. Together with publisher Ken Siman, their team is thrilled to launch with a work that spent a record-setting 216 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list.

“Not only are younger readers discovering this title for the first time, there are fans of the book from when it was first published who crave more,” Alfonsi says.

But “Midnight” proves the exception, not the rule. The long-term Metabook plan hinges on releasing original content. The New York-based company will soon announce a list of acquisitions he calls “very diverse” that features new works of fiction and nonfiction.

Alfonsi’s background is in tech and entertainment, not publishing. This endeavor led the Pennsylvania native to approach the process with an even more specialized set of skills.

“To create the book of the future, you almost have to think like a film director,” he says. “You have to have a handle on emerging technology, but you also have to capitalize on the visual and aesthetic components of everything.”

The “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” Metabook is available for iPad and iPhone.

“People were writing on cave walls, then Gutenburg came along with the printing press and that changed everything. Everything is changing again. It’s inevitable, so why not try and do it the best way possible?”

This story was originally published June 5, 2015 at 12:00 PM with the headline "A new day for ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’."