About this title: In this story of injustice and redemption set in rural Louisiana during the late 1940s, Grant Wiggins, a backwoods schoolmaster, is asked visit a young black prisoner on death row. Jefferson, the prisoner, was falsely accused and convicted of murder and is sentenced to hang, and Wiggins's job, once he realizes the impossibility of overturning the verdict, is to prepare the boy for death. Although, as a nonbeliever, Wiggins at first finds himself in competition with the minister for the boy's attention, he eventually comes to see that the cultivation of any instinct of love--human or ...
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Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780375702709ISBN:0375702709
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 272 p. Vintage Contemporaries (Paperback). Audience: General/trade. Ready for new reader! read more
Description: Good. 0679414770 Library copy with mylar cover and library markings. Great service. Fast shipping. Saving trees 1 page at a time! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780375702709ISBN:0375702709
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780375702709ISBN:0375702709
Description: Acceptable. A readable copy. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (the dust cover may be missing). Pages can include considerable notes-in pen or highlighter-but the notes cannot obscure the text. Return Policy Any defects, damages, or material differences with your item, must be reported to us within 7 days of receipt of the item or 30 days from date of shipment. The returned merchandise must be postmarked within 30 days of the shipment notification. Non-deliveries must be reported ... read more
"I reread this book recently after many years and was surprised by nearly everything - but not how good it is. I had forgotten most details of the plot, the narrative structure, the characters, so it was almost like reading it for the first time; and the shock and power of the book hit me anew. This book, about a young black man condemned to die for being in the wrong place at the wrong time in the pre-Civil Rights era South and the young black teacher who is asked to teach him to die like a man, is generally described as being about race relations and about human dignity, but it's far more complex and layered than that. It's also about changing times and mores as one generation takes up where another leaves off; about the difference between faith and religion, and the part that each plays in people's lives; about education and understanding, love and lust, and the different kinds of responsibility we all have in our lives - those that are forced on us, those we take on grudgingly, and those we take on willingly but that have far different repercussions than we ever could have imagined. In the end, of course, there is more than one lesson to be taught and learned."
"This is one of the best books I have ever read. I especially liked the development of Grant. I like the fact that he questions the problems and situations around him. He's not content to stay where he is in life and within himself."
"This book was beautiful. It was emotional and I couldn't control my nose from running as I read the end at work. One of my top ten of all time reads. Here's a very good review by another goodreads member: "It's a very simple story about two African-American men in 1940s Louisiana; one is a teacher and the other is a uneducated man waiting to be executed for a murder he witnessed, but didn't commit. Both of them have given up hope for their lives, and for humanity in general. They live by the rules of the white majority, and both face a bleak future that's beyond their ability to change. They are forced to spend time together, and eventually, they end up teaching each other how noble they are, and how precious life is."
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