"This majestic, moving novel is an instant classic, a book that will be read, discussed and taught beyond the rest of our lives."-Chicago Tribune Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, A Lesson Before Dying is a deep and...

A Lesson Before Dying von Gaines, Ernest J.

"This is a novel in the guise of the tape-recorded recollections of a black woman who has lived 110 years, who has been both a slave and a witness to the black militancy of the 1960's. In this woman Ernest Gaines has created a legendary...

A courthouse shooting leads a young reporter to uncover the long story of race and power in his small town and the relationship between the white sheriff and the black man who "whipped children" to keep order-in the final novella by the...

A powerful depiction of racial tensions arising over the death of a Cajun farmer at the hands of a black man--set on a Louisiana sugarcane plantation in the 1970s. The Village Voice called A Gathering of Old Men "the best-written novel...