The Matter of Black Lives

Writing from The New Yorker

By: Jelani Cobb, David Remnick

Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh, January LaVoy, JD Jackson, Maggi-Meg Reed, Jane Caplan, Kaleo Griffin

Length: 30 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

A collection of The New Yorker‘s groundbreaking writing on race in America, including work by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hilton Als, Zadie Smith and more.

From the pages of The New Yorker comes a bold and telling portrait of Black life in America, with astonishing early work from Rebecca West’s account of a lynching trial and James Baldwin’s ‘Letter from a Region in My Mind’ (which later formed the basis of The Fire Next Time) to more recent writing by Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Zadie Smith, Hilton Als, Jamaica Kincaid, Malcolm Gladwell, Elizabeth Alexander, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Doreen St. Félix, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Kelefa Sanneh and more. Reaching back across the last century, The Matter of Black Lives includes a wide array of material from The New Yorker archives, ranging across essays, reported pieces, profiles, criticism and historical pieces. This book addresses everything from the arts to civil rights, matters of justice and politics, and brings us up to the present day with accounts of what Jelani Cobb calls 'The American Spring'. The result is a startling, nuanced and, ultimately, indelible portrait of America’s complex relationship with race.

©2021 Jelani Cobb and David Remnick (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"A must-read." (Daily Beast)

"Illuminating and powerful...a memorable book with a resounding message." (Publishers Weekly)