About the Author

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah was raised in Spring Valley, New York, and now lives in the Bronx. His debut collection, Friday Black, was a New York Times bestseller, won the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize. His first novel Chain-Gang All-Stars was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Books Are My Bag Awards, and selected as a New York Times Top Ten Books of the Year. Adjei-Brenyah is a National Book Foundation's '5 Under 35' honoree.

Reviews

Criminally entertaining.
*Guardian*

Adjei-Brenyah's acerbic vision lands like a lightning bolt of truth.
*Esquire*

Grimly funny, epically violent and - at times - surprisingly tender. Quite the ride.
*Marie Claire*

Magnificent. A radical interrogation of incarceration, racism, entertainment, the whole fabric of American injustice, as well as a pure fire page turner.
*Max Porter, author of SHY*

A sort of The Hunger Games meets Gladiator meets WWE meets the modern private prison system.
*Elle*

Like Orwell's 1984 and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Adjei-Brenyah's book presents a dystopian vision so upsetting and illuminating that it should permanently shift our understanding of who we are and what we're capable of doing... Shockingly intimate and moving.
*Washington Post*

Compelling... The range of different narrators provides a smart 360-degree perspective of the too-familiar society that demands murder for entertainment.
*SFX*

A brutal, heart-wrenching story that feels so close to reality.
*Cosmopolitan*

A hugely imaginative read - the world-building is masterful... Unmissable.
*Independent*

One of the most exciting young writers in America.
*George Saunders, author of LINCOLN IN THE BARDO*