Between the World and Me

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ΓÇó NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER ΓÇó NAMED ONE OF TIMEΓÇÖS TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE ΓÇó PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST ΓÇó NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST ΓÇó ONE OF OPRAHΓÇÖS ΓÇ£BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGHΓÇ¥ ΓÇó NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as ΓÇ£required reading,ΓÇ¥ a bold and personal literary exploration of AmericaΓÇÖs racial history by ΓÇ£the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about raceΓÇ¥ (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMESΓÇÖS 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY ΓÇó NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN ΓÇó NAMED ONE OF PASTEΓÇÖS BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book ReviewO: The Oprah MagazineThe Washington PostPeopleEntertainment WeeklyVogueLos Angeles TimesSan Francisco ChronicleChicago TribuneNew YorkNewsdayLibrary JournalPublishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his sonTa-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nationΓÇÖs history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of ΓÇ£raceΓÇ¥ a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and menΓÇöbodies exploited through slavery and segregationandtodaythreatenedlocked upand murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi CoatesΓÇÖs attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his sonΓÇöand readersΓÇöthe story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiencesfrom Howard University to Civil War battlefieldsfrom the South Side of Chicago to Parisfrom his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose childrenΓÇÖs lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrativereimagined historyand freshemotionally charged reportageBetween the World and Me clearly illuminates the pastbracingly confronts our presentand offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.