Just Mercy (Adapted for Young Adults)

A True Story of the Fight for Justice

By: Bryan Stevenson

Narrated by: Bryan Stevenson

Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

The young adult adaptation of the acclaimed, number one New York Times best seller Just Mercy - now a major motion picture starring Michael B. Jordan, Jaime Foxx, and Brie Larson and now the subject of an upcoming HBO documentary feature!

In this very personal work - adapted from the original number one best seller, which the New York Times calls "as compelling as To Kill a Mockingbird, and in some ways more so" - acclaimed lawyer and social justice advocate Bryan Stevenson offers a glimpse into the lives of the wrongfully imprisoned and his efforts to fight for their freedom.

Stevenson's story is one of working to protect basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society - the poor, the wrongly convicted, and those whose lives have been marked by discrimination and marginalization. Through this adaptation, young people of today will find themselves called to action and compassion in the pursuit of justice.

Proceeds of this book will go to charity to help in Stevenson's important work to benefit the voiceless and the vulnerable as they attempt to navigate the broken US justice system.

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year

A Booklist Editors' Choice

Featured on CBS This Morning

A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year

Praise for Just Mercy: A True Story of the Fight for Justice:

"It's really exciting that young people are getting a version tailored for them." (Salon)

"A deeply moving collage of true stories....This is required reading." (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

"Compassionate and compelling, Stevenson's narrative is also unforgettable." (Booklist, starred review)

"Gripping.... What hangs in the balance is nothing less than the soul of a great nation." (Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate)

"Important and compelling." (Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder)

"Inspiring and powerful." (Number one New York Times best-selling author John Grisham)

©2018 Bryan A. Stevenson (P)2018 Listening Library

Critic reviews

“Just Mercy is every bit as moving as To Kill a Mockingbird, and in some ways more so.... [It] demonstrates, as powerfully as any book on criminal justice that I’ve ever read, the extent to which brutality, unfairness, and racial bias continue to infect criminal law in the United States. But at the same time that [Bryan] Stevenson tells an utterly damning story of deep-seated and widespread injustice, he also recounts instances of human compassion, understanding, mercy, and justice that offer hope.... Just Mercy is a remarkable amalgam, at once a searing indictment of American criminal justice and a stirring testament to the salvation that fighting for the vulnerable sometimes yields.” (David Cole, The New York Review of Books)

“Inspiring...a work of style, substance and clarity...Stevenson is not only a great lawyer, he’s also a gifted writer and storyteller.” (The Washington Post)

“A searing, moving and infuriating memoir...Bryan Stevenson may, indeed, be America’s Mandela. For decades he has fought judges, prosecutors and police on behalf of those who are impoverished, black or both.... Injustice is easy not to notice when it affects people different from ourselves; that helps explain the obliviousness of our own generation to inequity today. We need to wake up. And that is why we need a Mandela in this country.” (Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times)

A Must Read

I love everything about this book. Made me cry both sad and happy tears. I’m praying for more people like Bryan that our world needs. I am a fan seeing and hearing people win, no matter what. God has BIG plans for Bryan and he saw that and is being the hands and feet our Father has called him to be.

touching story

a good reminder of our shared humanity. concise enough to be a quick but impactful listen

Breathtaking

I was in tears multiple times through this book. Bryan Stevenson’s story of “catching stones” and “just mercy” is so inspiring. I am grateful for his work and that he has shared that work with a broader audience. I would recommend this book to everyone.

Just. Mercy. WOW

What a passionate book about how people can make a difference and humanity. It has inspired me to do more for change where injustice lives.

Wow

The author did an amazing job reading the book. It saddens me that our Justice system doesn’t do a better job of prosecuting the right people.

Amazing!!

I had to read it for a class course and I’m glad my professor chose this book because this book is amazing! It’s very interesting and educated me how unfair the criminal justice system was back then. I highly recommend this book. Also, the book being available in audio was really convenient! I would listen to it every time I got into my car.

heartbreaking and liberating

I've learned so much and cried so much. It was really an emotional book and I truly appreciate Bryan Stevenson and his work.

Great read!

Couldn't stop listening to it.
Great message. I learned a lot about the criminal justice system.

A must read

Very informative. Thank God for Bryan Stevenson as he continues to win cases for the wrongly convicted.

A Critical Look at the American Justice System for young adults

This book is a must read for everyone, Stevenson takes an incredible deep dive into the ways in which the institutions of the Slave Trade, Jim Crow, Mass Incarnation have immense consequences on marginalized communities and how it is critical that we discuss the inequalities/consequences that stem from these institutions in order to bring change to the systems that oppress these groups. He uses personal experience, stores of specific injustices of youth, stories of the wrongfully convicted, and ties it all in to how it is a systemic issues that plague our nation. MUST READ!