STEPH CURRY'S UNDERRRATED BOOK CLUB PICK FOR APRIL 2022NAACP IMAGE AWARD FINALISTNEW YORK TIMES
BEST SELLERONE OF TIME'S 100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2021ONE OF OPRAH'S 15 FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2021ONE
OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2021A BOSTON GLOBE BEST BOOK OF 2021A major literary
event: an explosive previously unpublished novel about race and police violence by the
legendary author of Native Son and Black BoyFred Daniels a Black man is picked up by the
police after a brutal double murder and tortured until he confesses to a crime he did not
commit. After signing a confession he escapes from custody and flees into the city s sewer
system.This is the devastating premise of this scorching novel a masterpiece that Richard
Wright was unable to publish in his lifetime. Written between his landmark books Native Son
(1940) and Black Boy (1945) at the height of his creative powers it would eventually see
publication only in drastically condensed and truncated form in the posthumous collection Eight
Men (1961).Now for the first time by special arrangement with the author's estate the full
text of this incendiary novel about race and violence in America the work that meant more to
Wright than any other ( I have never written anything in my life that stemmed more from sheer
inspiration ) is published in the form that he intended complete with his companion essay
Memories of My Grandmother. Malcolm Wright the author s grandson contributes an afterword.
