Friday Black, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Friday Black illuminates contemporary issues such as violence, race, and injustice in America. This book tackles urgent instances of racism and cultural unrest, and explores the many ways we fight for humanity in an unforgiving world.
There There, Tommy Orange
There There is a wondrous and shattering portrait of the urban Native American. Tommy Orange has written a stunning novel that grapples with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and profound spirituality, and with a plague of addiction, abuse, and suicide.
Gun Love, Jennifer Clement
Pearl’s mother took her away from her family just weeks after she was born, and drove off to central Florida determined to begin a new life for herself and her daughter–in the parking lot next to a trailer park. Pearl grew up in the front seat of their ’94 Mercury, while her mother lived in the back. Despite their hardships, mother and daughter both adjusted to life, making friends with the residents of the trailers and creating a deep connection to each other. All around them, Florida is populated with gun owners–those hunting alligators for sport, those who want to protect their families, and those who create a sense of danger.
Brother, David Chariandy
Brother addresses important current and politically charged themes, specifically police brutality toward African Americans. In Brother, Michael describes the events leading up to and the aftermath of the shooting of his brother Francis by the Canadian police. Brother also grapples with the responsibility that adult children have to their parents after growing up in poverty, as well as masculinity and the perception of homosexuality in the Black community.
An American Marriage, Tayari Jones
An American Marriage grapples with issues of race, wrongful imprisonment, and mass incarceration—the culmination of research the author began at a fellowship at Harvard in 2011. It makes these issues personal, by giving them faces and emotions.
Which of the finalists have you read already? What do you think of the final list?
