Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah [New]

$18.00

Paperback

"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...So raw and tragic and primal is Chain-Gang All-Stars that despite its futuristic elements, it has the patina of some timeworn epic...Shockingly intimate and moving."
—Washington Post

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*Finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction*
*One of the New York Times' Top Ten Books of the Year*
*Winner of the ALA Alex Award*
*Finalist for the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award*
*Finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award
*Finalist for the Goodreads Choice Awards*
*Finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize*
*Finalist for the Chautauqua Prize*
*Finalist for the Locus Award for Best First Novel*
*Finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction Book of the Year*
*Shortlisted for the Inside Literary Prize*
*Longlisted for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award*
*Longlisted for the New American Voices Awards*
*Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize*
*Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction*
*Longlisted for the Dublin Literary Prize*

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara 'Hurricane Staxxx' Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. Its the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom. In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer.