Leaving Atlanta
by Tayari Jones
276 pages· 2009· ISBN 9780446559652
About
FROM THE AUTHOR OF AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE, AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB 2018 SELECTION
It's the end of summer in Atlanta, and fifth-grade classmates Tasha Baxter, Rodney Green, and Octavia Harrison will discover that back-to-school means facing everyday challenges in a new world of safety lessons, terrified parents, and constant fear. Because it was the summer during which Atlanta's African-American children were vanishing.
The moving story of their struggle to grow up and survive shimmers with the piercing, ineffable quality of childhood, as it captures all the hurts and little wins, the all-too-sudden changes, and the merciless, outside forces that can sweep the young into adulthood and forever shape their lives.
PRAISE FOR TAYARI JONES
"Tayari Jones is blessed with vision to see through to the surprising and devastating truths at the heart of ordinary lives, strength to wrest those truths free, and a gift of language to lay it all out, compelling and clear."-Michael Chabon
"Tayari Jones has emerged as one of the most important voices of her generation."-Essence
"One of America's finest writers."-Nylon.com
"Tayari Jones is a wonderful storyteller." -Ploughshares
It's the end of summer in Atlanta, and fifth-grade classmates Tasha Baxter, Rodney Green, and Octavia Harrison will discover that back-to-school means facing everyday challenges in a new world of safety lessons, terrified parents, and constant fear. Because it was the summer during which Atlanta's African-American children were vanishing.
The moving story of their struggle to grow up and survive shimmers with the piercing, ineffable quality of childhood, as it captures all the hurts and little wins, the all-too-sudden changes, and the merciless, outside forces that can sweep the young into adulthood and forever shape their lives.
PRAISE FOR TAYARI JONES
"Tayari Jones is blessed with vision to see through to the surprising and devastating truths at the heart of ordinary lives, strength to wrest those truths free, and a gift of language to lay it all out, compelling and clear."-Michael Chabon
"Tayari Jones has emerged as one of the most important voices of her generation."-Essence
"One of America's finest writers."-Nylon.com
"Tayari Jones is a wonderful storyteller." -Ploughshares
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