Chain Gang All Stars

A Novel

De: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Narrado por: Shayna Small, Aaron Goodson, Michael Crouch, Lee Osorio

A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION • A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America’s own in this explosive, hotly-anticipated debut novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Friday Black • LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE

A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Elle, Esquire, Chicago Tribune, Lit Hub, Kirkus Reviews

“Like Orwell’s 1984 and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Adjei-Brenyah’s book presents a dystopian vision so…illuminating that it should permanently shift our understanding of who we are and what we’re capable of doing.”—The Washington Post

“This book is so good. Brutal subject matter, beautiful writing. This one is from the heart.”—Stephen King

She felt their eyes, all those executioners…

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of the 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. It’s 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 before 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. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, Thurwar considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games. But CAPE’s corporate own­ers will stop at nothing to protect their status quo, and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar’s path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors, to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system’s unholy alli­ance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means from a “new and necessary American voice” (Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review).

©2023 Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (P)2023 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

*Finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction*

*One of the New York Times' Top Ten Books of the Year*

*Finalist for the Goodreads Choice Awards*

*Longlisted for the New American Voices Awards*

*Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize*

*Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize*

*Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction*

*Longlisted for the Dublin Literary Prize*

Named A Best Book of the Year by:

New York Times Book Review, NPR, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Elle, Esquire, the New York Public Library, Goodreads, Book Riot, Polygon, Financial Times, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Shelf Awareness, Readers Digest, Electric Literature, WBEZ's Nerdette, The Globe and Mail, The Messenger, Library Journal, and The Northforker

*May Selection for The Today Show’s Read With Jenna Book Club*

*Roxane Gay’s May Selection for the Audacious Book Club*

*A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice*

*New York Times Notable Book of the Year*

“This book will change you!...A masterpiece.”—Jenna Bush Hager, The Today Show’s #ReadWithJenna

“An act of protest…in a voice that belongs only to Adjei-Brenyah, who bends the lurid into the lyrical—pretty words about hideous deeds. Some of his best fight sentences sound as if Joe Rogan had fallen into a trance and assumed the diction and rhythms of Toni Morrison. If you recoil at that unholy fusion, that’s kind of the point; and the author keeps pulling off this shock, page after page…There’s more than a little George Saunders in these high jinks…The novel is a thorough display of authorial control…As the plot careers forward, Adjei-Brenyah uses footnotes as tethers between fiction and reality, reminding us that his gladiatorial farce is just a little tragicomic leap from an extant American horror…The society in which [these characters] live defines them by their worst deeds, but the writer of this novel refuses to.”—New York Times Book Review

“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

Amazing

What a debut! I look forward to reading more from this very talented author. This book is eye opening to some very real injustices in our justice system. The characters are so wonderfully written. It’s just a great book. Read it!

Heartwrenching

I just finished this and i’m a little stupefied with awe. This book is so human - beautiful brave and horrifying all at once. Another review called it hunger games for adults (or something similar) and that’s pretty spot on…except this near future is frighteningly present.

I loved the narration but the footnotes were a little distracting. Important, but hard to separate from the story until the last half when the narrators change more often. Sometimes makes the story seem more didactic than it actually is, which is off putting. I wish they’d done the small sound cue + specific narrator approach to signify a footnote. If you think the “make it part of the text” style of audio footnotes will bother you, the written will be a better fit.

Groundbreaking

it is heartbreaking, relevant, fast moving and very entertaining. I will definitely be thinking about this book for a while. You can tell he is a PHENOMENAL short story writer, I've never read a book like this and likely never will. Very thought provoking. Already recommending to everyone!

Devastating and Phenomenal

I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. This book is not for everyone, but if you have any experience with or want to learn more about our broken criminal justice system it’s a must read.

So. GOOD!

If you're into Hunger Games, Orange is the New Black, Wentworth, Red Rising, etc. this is for you. Dystopian mixed with prison fiction. the characters are so real and believable and relatable. the only thing wrong with the performance was when the narrator does Mickey Wrights voice : kind of annoying but other than that, very good book all around, I was addicted! I can't believe the ending though 😭

Great characters.

I loved how this book is a metaphor for America. The book makes the reader think. I thought the characters were great. However, it's a story that left me wanting more. Maybe that is in part, written this way to create a series. Would make a great streaming series no doubt.

Have the Book

Have the book handy. There are side notes and figuring out when it is switching is difficult

Overall it’s a great and powerful stories. I love the characters. Way too much. I need a part 2 to this…I hated the ending. As much as it parallels the actual criminal justice system, I hated feeling the weight of people not being able to beat it in the end.

Emotionally charged, character-driven and thought provoking novel.

I hope to be able to read more from author. This was a powerful, shocking, dystopian novel.

EXCELLENT

I was riveted from the first line! The characters, story and pace are beautifully written.

Simply the best.

I have not been captivated by a book in a while. Chain Gang Allstars is beautiful and tragic. It showcases the best of us and the worst.