Writing to Save a Life
- 3 May 2018
- 9781786893727
- £9.99
- 208 pp
- 129×198mm
- 3 May 2018
- 9781786893734
- £7.99
- 208 pp
In a few words
The new international prizewinning non-fiction from John Edgar Wideman, one of the standout black American writers of the modern age and winner of the 2017 Prix Femina Étranger
In a few words
The new international prizewinning non-fiction from John Edgar Wideman, one of the standout black American writers of the modern age and winner of the 2017 Prix Femina Étranger
At times melancholy, at others raw and rippling with rage, Wideman masterfully weaves together memory, history and archival documents . . . Haunting, provocative, and inspired
This is a book unlike any other . . . Offers a deeply personal inquiry into the life and death of Louis Till . . . Wideman stares down the gaps in the military court records, reading and writing between the lines to reveal the fatal uncertainties of black life
At times melancholy, at others raw and rippling with rage, Wideman masterfully weaves together memory, history and archival documents . . . Haunting, provocative, and inspired
This is a book unlike any other . . . Offers a deeply personal inquiry into the life and death of Louis Till . . . Wideman stares down the gaps in the military court records, reading and writing between the lines to reveal the fatal uncertainties of black life
More about
the book
When Emmett Till was murdered aged fourteen for allegedly whistling at a white woman, photographs of his destroyed face became a flashpoint in the civil rights movement. A decade earlier Emmett’s father, Louis, had also been killed – court-martialled and hanged. Though the circumstances could hardly have been more different, behind both deaths stood the same crime, of being black.
In Writing to Save a Life, John Edgar Wideman, born the same year as Emmett Till, investigates the tragic fates of father and son. Mixing research, memoir and imagination, this book is an essential commentary on racism in America – illuminating, humane and profound.
More about
the book
When Emmett Till was murdered aged fourteen for allegedly whistling at a white woman, photographs of his destroyed face became a flashpoint in the civil rights movement. A decade earlier Emmett’s father, Louis, had also been killed – court-martialled and hanged. Though the circumstances could hardly have been more different, behind both deaths stood the same crime, of being black.
In Writing to Save a Life, John Edgar Wideman, born the same year as Emmett Till, investigates the tragic fates of father and son. Mixing research, memoir and imagination, this book is an essential commentary on racism in America – illuminating, humane and profound.
A mercurial coupling of fact and fiction from a profound writer
Richard Ford
A quietly harrowing postscript to the tragedy of Emmett Till . . . A searching account
A great American writer
Joy Williams
A genre-defying mix of history, biography, and memoir
A mercurial coupling of fact and fiction from a profound writer
Richard Ford
A quietly harrowing postscript to the tragedy of Emmett Till . . . A searching account
A great American writer
Joy Williams
A genre-defying mix of history, biography, and memoir
John Edgar Wideman
View profileJohn Edgar Wideman’s books include American Histories, Philadelphia Fire, Brothers and Keepers, Fatheralong, Hoop Roots and Sent for You Yesterday. He is a MacArthur Fellow and has won the PEN/Faulkner Award twice and has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and National Book Award. In 2017, he won the the Prix Femina Étranger for Writing to Save a Life. He divides his time between New York and France.
John Edgar Wideman
View profileJohn Edgar Wideman’s books include American Histories, Philadelphia Fire, Brothers and Keepers, Fatheralong, Hoop Roots, and Sent for You Yesterday. He is a MacArthur Fellow and has won the PEN/Faulkner Award twice and has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and National Book Award. In 2017, he won the the Prix Femina Étranger for Writing to Save a Life. He divides his time between New York and France.
