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African American Fiction & Non-Fiction January/February 2024
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The Art of Scandal
by Regina Black
After discovering her husband is having an affair, Rachel Abbott agrees to keep playing the ideal Black trophy wife until after his reelection campaign but finds it hard to keep her side of the bargain when she falls in love with an artist whose secrets blow everything wide open.
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Company: Stories
by Shannon Sanders
Told in 13 stories, this multigenerational saga follows an African-American family and their friends as they navigate the challenges and joys of life—from the 1960s to the 2000s, from Atlantic City to Washington D.C.
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Fake Famous: a Novel
by Dana Davis
A Brooklyn-born pop star who discovers that being famous isn't all it's cracked up to be enlists the help of an Iowa farm girl look-alike in the new novel from the author of Somebody That I Used to Know.
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From a Far and Lovely Country
by Alexander McCall Smith
Busier than ever, the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, with no shortage of sensitive situations, are reminded by Mma Ramotswe that the best solutions to life's problems can be found with a bit of good humor, generosity of spirit and a steaming cup of red bush tea.
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Flipping Boxcars: a Novel
by Cedric
Struggling to get by during the Great Depression and World War II, Babe, a gambler with a heart of gold and the gift of gab, when he endangers the little security his family has, risks everything for one big score—a make-or-break scheme involving railroad boxcars.
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Gaslight
by Femi Kayode
Philip Taiwo returns to solve a missing-persons case, and in so doing, uncovers dark secrets the church has worked tirelessly to hide.
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Glory Be
by Danielle Arceneaux
Suspicious and doubting, Glory Brussard decides to investigate after learning that her best friend, a nun beloved by her Lafayette, Louisiana community has died mysteriously and has been ruled a suicide by the authorities.
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Her Own Happiness
by Eden Appiah-Kubi
"Maya Davis is living in paradise until her apartment, her career, and her dreams fall away in a horrible and dramatic fashion. Suddenly she's packing her life into two suitcases and heading back to her parents' home in Maryland, scrambling for a plan B.Happy thirty-first birthday, Maya. Right beside her is Ant, Maya's best friend. While she's returning home, Ant's leaving his for the first time. Even though he moved away to start his own adventure, Ant can't seem to separate himself from Maya--and he'snot sure he wants to. Thinking practically for once, Maya makes her top priority finding a career--or at least a job with health insurance. But when she's drawn into the orbit of Emme Vivant, the influential girlboss decides Maya has potential. Suddenly there are new contacts, new clothes, and the possibility of a shiny new future that could make this move home worthwhile. But is Maya finally in control of her life, or is she losing it? Just as Ant's platonic feelings for Maya deepen, his best friend in the world seems to be moving on without him. In this tender and vibrant novel, Maya learns that finding the right path might not matter as much as finding herself--and who's beside her on the journey."
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Homeward: a Novel
by Angela Jackson-Brown
"Homeward follows Rose's path toward self-discovery and growth as she becomes involved in the Civil Rights Movement, finally becoming the woman she has always dreamed of being."
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In Their Shadows
by Briana Cole
A successful scam artist living two perfect, separate lives with two unsuspecting husbands receives a mysterious package that threatens to expose her, in the second novel of the series following Behind Her Lives.
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Let Us Descend: a Novel
by Jesmyn Ward
In the years before the Civil War, Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, struggles through the miles-long march, seeks comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother, opening herself to a world beyond this world
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The Most Secret Memory of Men: a Novel
by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
"An impressive coming-of-age novel and a gripping investigation into the life of a mysterious author. A prolific novel and a true ode to literature in the vein of Roberto Bolaäno's Savage Detectives, written by one of the most prominent figures in contemporary literature. In 2018, Diâegane Latyr Faye, a young Senegalese writer, discovers a legendary book in Paris, published in 1938 and entitled Le labyrinthe de l'inhumain (The Maze of Inhumanity). No one knows what happened to the author, once referred to as the "Black Rimbaud," after his book created a scandal. Diâegane is fascinated and decides to look for the mysterious T.C. Elimane. On his path, he confronts the great tragedies of history such as colonialism and the holocaust. From Senegal to Argentina to France, will he get to the truth at the center of the maze? Alongside his investigation, Diâegane, becomes part of a group of young African writers in Paris. They check each other out, talk, drink, make love...a lot, and philosophize about the role of exile in artistic creation. He becomes particularly close to two women: the seductive Siga, who holds many secrets and the fleeting photojournalist Aèida... The Most Distant Memory of Men continuously reinvents itself. It is an astonishing novel about choosing between living and writing, about the desire to go beyond the confrontation between Africa and the West. Above all, it is an ode to literature and its timeless qualities"
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Murder in Drury Lane
by Vanessa Riley
While attending a production at the Drury Lane theater, Lady Abigail Worthing, when murder is in attendance, launches her own investigation, dismayed to discover one suspect is a leading advocate for the cause dearest to her heart—the abolition of slavery within the British Empire.
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The New Naturals: a Novel
by Gabriel Bump
After losing their child, a husband and wife construct a separate society, where everyone can feel loved and wanted, but when others hear about the place and want in, it doesn't take long for problems to develop, for conflicts to surface, and for the children to crave life beyond this place.
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Next-door Nemesis
by Alexa Martin
"Two rival candidates for a homeowner's association presidency are about to find out how dirty suburbanites fight in this steamy new romantic comedy from Alexa Martin. After years of hustling, Collins Carter has finally made it...back to her parents' house. Between tending to the compost with her newly retired dad and running into her high school nemesis at the only decent coffee shop in town, Collins realizes this subdivision from hell she swore she'd never return to is her rock bottom. Then the homeowner's association complaint arrived. Nathaniel Adams always dreamed of a nice, quiet life in his suburban hometown. Or at least that's what he thought until Collins moved back and sent his quaint, organized life into a tailspin. He thought Collins was infuriating ten years ago, but when she announces she's running against him for HOA president, all bets are off. From secret board meetings to vicious smear campaigns whispered over backyard fences, Collins and Nate sink to levels their sleepy suburb has never seen before. But as hate turns into lust, these two enemies are forced to reckon with the feelings they've ignored for years. If only there were bylaws for real life."
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The Other Princess: a Novel of Queen Victoria's Goddaughter
by Denny S. Bryce
"A stunning portrait of an African princess raised in Queen Victoria's court and adapting to life in Victorian England--based on the real-life story of a recently rediscovered historical figure, Sarah Forbes Bonetta. With a brilliant mind and a fierce will to survive, Sarah Forbes Bonetta, a kidnapped African princess, is rescued from enslavement at seven years old and presented to Queen Victoria as a "gift." To the Queen, the girl is an exotic trophy to be trotted out for the entertainment of the royal court and to showcase Victoria's magnanimity. Sarah charms most of the people she meets, even those who would cast her aside. Her keen intelligence and her aptitude for languages and musical composition helps Sarah navigate the Victorian era as an outsider given insider privileges. But embedded in Sarah's past is her destiny. Haunted by visions of destruction and decapitations, she desperately seeks a place, a home she will never run from, never fear, a refuge from nightmares and memories of death. From West Africa to Windsor Castle to Sierra Leone, to St. James's Palace, and the Lagos Colony, Sarah juggles the power and pitfalls of a royal upbringing as she battles racism and systematic oppression on her way to living a life worthy of a Yoruba princess. Based on the real life of Queen Victoria's Black goddaughter, Sarah Forbes Bonetta's story is a sweeping saga of an African princess in Victorian England and West Africa, as she searches for a home, family, love, and identity."
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The Peach Seed
by Anita Gail Jones
Running into his first love, whom he hasn't seen in 52 years ever since they were separated during a peaceful protest turned violent, Fletcher Dukes, who had carved her a peach seed monkey, reflects on the legacies of America's Civil Rights Movement and the far-reaching impacts of the 1800s slave trade.
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Play to Win: a Novel
by Jodie Slaughter
"Miriam Butler's life is going nowhere in the slowest, most excruciating way possible. Stuck in the same barely paying job she's had since she was sixteen and spending every night sleeping in the spare twin bed in her mother's house, her existence might be hilarious if it wasn't so bleak. One trip to her favorite corner store upends everything when she finds herself the winner of a Mega Millions Lottery Jackpot. Unfortunately, not even life-altering roses come without their painful thorns. Hers just so happen to be in the form of an estranged husband who has the right to claim his share of her money. It's been eight years since Leo Vaughn has had a conversation with his wife. When she calls out of the blue, practically begging him to come back to Greenbelt, the last thing he expects her to tell him when he gets there is that she's come into a whole heap of money. She offers him a life-changing proposition of his own. Take a lump sum, finally sign the divorce papers, and be done with her for good. Only, aforever without her is the last thing Leo wants. So he gives a proposition of his own. One that won't cost her nearly as many millions, but will buy him the time to do the one thing he's been hungry to do since he left -- win her back."
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The Splinter in the Sky
by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
When her lover is assassinated and her sibling is kidnapped by Imperial solders, Enitan, using her fledgling tea business as cover, moves undetected through the Vaalbaran capital where she will learn just how far she'll go to exact vengeance, free her sibling and secure her homeland's freedom.
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Stars In Your Eyes
by Kacen Callender
To create positive buzz about their new romantic comedy, Hollywood bad boy Logan Gray, a talented but troubled actor who the public loves to hate, and Mattie Cole, an up-and-coming golden boy, are persuaded into a fake-dating scheme that soon becomes all too real, opening up old wounds and insecurities.
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Take the Long Way Home
by Rochelle Alers
Spanning seven decades and two continents, this chronicle of one woman's remarkable journey through some of history's most turbulent eras follows Claudia Patterson, freedom fighter, businessperson, wife, master of languages and ultimately, savior of a European dynasty, as she encounters four men who impact her life along the way.
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Technically Yours
by Denise Williams
"Pearl Harris has learned the hard way to be careful in work and in love. When she is appointed acting director of Our Code, a nonprofit aimed at inspiring high schoolers to code, she has a chance to make lasting change for the organization, but a scandal has put their reputation at risk. Further complicating matters, Pearl didn't expect the one man she hasn't stopped thinking about in seven years to be the newest member of her board of directors. Cord Matthews fell for Pearl when they met in an elevator seven years ago. She's just his type: smart, capable, and makes him laugh, but when she broke his heart, he decided love wasn't for him. After five years with no contact, their connection is immediate despite the many roadblocks in their way and Cord must consider breaking his ban on serious relationships. But going public with a romance between them might derail Pearl's career and the progress she's made at Our Code. Pearl and Cord both are hesitant to trust their feelings and take a risk as they grow closer, but it becomes impossible to keep ignoring the electricity between them. Cord is a skilled programmer, but a workplace romance might spell disaster for both of them, and love isn't easily debugged."
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Those We Thought We Knew: a Novel
by David Joy
Returning to her ancestral home in the North Carolina mountains to complete her graduate thesis, Toya, a young black artist, sets her sights on something bigger when she encounters a still-standing Confederate monument in the heart of town and two horrific crimes split the county apart.
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Touched: a Novel
by Walter Mosley
When he wakes up with the knowledge that humanity is a virus destined to destroy all existence and he is the cure, Martin, uses his new physical strengths to violently defend his family—the only Black family in their neighborhood in Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles—against pure evil.
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Unrealistic Expectations
by Andie J. Christopher
Dumped right before her new dating handbook hits shelves, relationship therapist Jessica Gallagher, to avoid a PR nightmare, fake dates her old crush, but after hookups“for science” and some seriously sweet gestures, she realizes their“pretend” relationship feels more real than any previous relationship ever did.
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Viper's Dream: a Novel
by Jake Lamar
"Harlem, 1936. Clyde "The Viper" Morton boards a train from Alabama to Harlem to chase his dreams of being a jazz musician. When his talent fails him, he becomes caught up in the dangerous underbelly of Harlem's drug trade. In this heartbreaking novel, one man must decide what he is willing to give up and what he wants to fight for. Viper's Dream is a fast-paced story that is charged with suspense. A snappy, provocative voice and a stark look at Viper's Black American experience weave with endless plot twists to offer readers a stunningly original, achingly beautiful read."
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We Are the Crisis: a Novel
by Cadwell Turnbull
"The world has undergone many changes in the years since monsters came out of the shadows. An anti-monster group known as the Black Hand has started to organize across the United States. In response, pro-monster organizations have been growing in numbersand militancy. Targeted killings of suspected monsters and their allies, monsters spirited away in the dead of night, and the beginnings of pro-monster legislation are all signs of a cosmic shift on the horizon. Is there any hope for lasting peace? Or are these events just precursors to a devastating monster-human war? Meanwhile, beneath it all, two ancient orders escalate their mysterious conflict, revealing dangerous secrets about the gods and the very origins of magic in the universe."
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Warrior of the Wind
by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
"After escaping Bassa and crossing the Soke moats, Danso and Lilong must travel far north to return home the ibor sought after by newly crowned Bassai Emperor Eshemi. With the new empire's reach now extending over the continent, a bounty on their heads, and news of their cargo now widespread, the journey proves to be even more treacherous. But the promise of reward fuels them both: for Danso, the news of an island of Ajabo survivors in the Nameless archipelago; for Lilong, an opportunity to be the hero her daa dreamed of and help nullify the threats from the mainland once and for all. Together, they journey across the desert's dunes and mountains, forge new alliances and sacrifice everything to survive the new emperor's thirst for blood, power, and revenge."
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The Wildest Sun: a Novel
by Asha Lemmie
Forced from her home in postwar Paris, aspiring young writer Delphine Auber embarks on a journey to New York's Harlem, and then to Havana and Key West, in search of her father, whom she believes is famed luminary Ernest Hemingway.
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The World Wasn't Ready for You: Stories
by Justin C. Key
Deftly blending science fiction, horror and fantasy, this electrifying new collection expands and subverts the horror genre to expertly explore issues of race, class, prejudice, love, exclusion, loneliness and what it means to be a person in the world, while revealing the horrifying nature inherent in all of us.
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The Book of James: the Power, Politics and Passion of LeBron
by Valerie Melissa Babb
"This unique social, cultural and political look at the life of LeBron James shows how he uses his celebrity not to transcend Blackness but to give it a place of cultural prominence, exposing the frictions between Blackness and a country not fully comfortable with its presence."
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Chronicles of the Juice Man: a Memoir
by Juicy "J"
The Academy Award-Winning and Grammy nominated hip hop artist traces his rise from a poor upbringing on the streets of Memphis to become a super rap recording artist, entrepreneur and tastemaker.
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Fashion Killa: How Hip-Hop Revolutionized High Fashion
by Sowmya Krishnamurthy
A music journalist and pop culture expert presents an oral history of the hip-hop artists, designers and stylists in New York, Paris and beyond who redefined worldwide fashion over the last fifty years.
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Goon With the Spoon
by Snoop Dogg
Drawing inspiration from both rappers' musical catalogs, their favorite meals to cook and eat together and E-40's Filipino food business, this next-level soulful cookbook contains more than 65 crowd-pleasing dishes along with epic stories and behind-the-scenes photos that bring these masterpieces to life.
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The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy: and the Path to a Shared American Future
by Robert P. Jones
Through stories of people in contemporary communities in Mississippi, Minnesota and Oklahoma, the president and founder of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), taking the story of white supremacy in America back to 1493, illuminates the possibility of a new American future in which we finally fulfill the promise of a pluralist democracy.
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How to Say Babylon: a Memoir
by Safiya Sinclair
"Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair's father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, became obsessed with her purity, in particular, with the threat of what Rastas call Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home. He worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure, and believed a woman's highest virtue was her obedience. In an effort to keep Babylon outside the gate, he forbade almost everything. In place of pants, the women in her family were made to wear long skirts and dresses to cover their arms and legs, head wraps to cover their hair, no make-up, no jewelry, no opinions, no friends. Safiya's mother, while loyal to her father, nonetheless gave Safiya and her siblings the gift of books, including poetry, to which Safiya latched on for dear life. And as Safiya watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under housework and the rigidity of her father's beliefs, she increasingly used her education as a sharp tool with which to find her voice and break free. Inevitably, with her rebellion comes clashes with her father, whose rage and paranoia explodes in increasing violence. As Safiya's voice grows, lyrically and poetically, acollision course is set between them. How to Say Babylon is Sinclair's reckoning with the culture that initially nourished but ultimately sought to silence her; it is her reckoning with patriarchy and tradition, and the legacy of colonialism in Jamaica. Rich in lyricism and language only a poet could evoke, How to Say Babylon is both a universal story of a woman finding her own power and a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we may know how to name, Rastafari, but one we know little about"
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An Inconvenient Cop: My Fight to Change Policing in America
by Edwin Raymond
The highest-ranking whistleblower in NYPD history offers a rare, often shocking view of American policing that exposes institutional violence and corruption and presents a vision of radical hope and potential for change that could reform police departments across the country.
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Lucky Me: a Memoir
by Rich Paul
"Rich Paul grew up in a Cleveland that hadn't won a sports championship in decades. He and his siblings lived with their mother, who struggled with addiction, in a one-bedroom apartment in the poverty-stricken Glenville neighborhood. Young Rich dreamed of becoming a star athlete but realized quickly that his small stature would make it nearly impossible. A serious child with a mind for detail, he went to private school and then college at his shop-owner father's encouragement. But he quit when his fatherdied of cancer, devoting himself to becoming the family's next entrepreneur. Paul began selling vintage jerseys out of the trunk of his car, and during one stint at the Akron-Canton Airport, a seventeen-year-old NBA prospect complimented the Warren Moon jersey that Rich was wearing. They struck up a friendship and exchanged contact information. By the next year, LeBron James signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Rich Paul was working alongside him. Paul was finally in the big leagues, but the industrywasn't necessarily ready to accept him. With grit, passion, and an unwavering sense of self, Paul forged a new path, and the NBA hasn't been the same since. Lucky Me is the memoir of that extraordinary journey told in Paul's blunt, philosophical style, but it is also so much more. It is a book full of inspiration and insight, and a testament to never compromising who you are for anyone."
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The Magic Border: Poetry and Fragments from My Soft Machine
by Arlo Parks
The Magic Border is the debut book from the Grammy-nominated, Mercury Prize winning musician and poet Arlo Parks. This remarkable collection features Arlo's handpicked original poems alongside exclusive photographs by friend and collaborator Daniyel Lowden in addition to the complete lyrics to her critically lauded sophomore album My Soft Machine. A deeply personal literary tapestry, The Magic Border beautifully showcases the full breadth of Arlo's singular artistry.
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Nothing Is Missing: a Memoir of Living Boldly
by Nicole Walters
In this riveting memoir, the daughter of Ghanian immigrants who became a self-made multimillionaire shares her struggles and challenges, including a health crisis that threatened the family she worked so hard to build, and how she created the life she wanted using the strength she had within herself all along.
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The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation
by Raquel Willis
One of the most formidable Black trans activists in history, in this passionate and powerful memoir, recounts the possibility of transformation after tragedy, and how complex moments can push us all to take necessary risks and bloom toward collective liberation.
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The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution
by Ryan Grim
This must-read book about the progressive movement in Congress, referred to informally as the Squad, and is led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, discusses how they've served as an inspiration and reminder to Americans that politicians should be elected to represent the people, not interest groups, corporations or their own pockets.
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Tupac Shakur: The Authorized Biography
by Staci Robinson
"The first and only Estate-authorized biography of the legendary artist, Tupac Shakur, a moving exploration of his life and powerful legacy, fully illustrated with photos, mementos, handwritten poetry, musings, and more. Tupac Shakur is one of the greatest and most controversial artists of all time. More than a quarter of a century after his tragic death in 1996 at the age of just twenty-five, he continues to be one of the most misunderstood, complicated and prolific figures in modern history. Tupac's unapologetic lyrics, for which he was villainized by many at the time, read in these pages as prophecy. His cry of outrage in a country that repeatedly told Black men and women that their lives did not matter, continues to inspire his fans around the world.In Tupac Shakur, author and screenwriter Staci Robinson-who knew Tupac as a young man and who was entrusted by his mother, Afeni Shakur, to write his biography-peels back the myths and unpacks the complexities that have shadowed Tupac's existence. With exclusive access to his private notebooks, letters, unpublished lyrics and uncensored conversations with those who knew and loved him best, Robinson tells a powerful story of a life defined by politics and art, and a man driven by equal parts brilliance and impulsiveness. It is a story of a mother and son bound together by a love for each other and for their people, and the relationship that endured through their darkest times. It is a political story that begins in the whirlwind of the 60's Civil Rights Movement, and takes you through a young artist's awakening to rage and purpose in the nineties era of Rodney King. It is a story of dizzying success and its devastating consequences. And, of course, it is the story of his music, his timeless message that will never die as it continues to touch and inspire past, present and future generations."
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