Itabari Njeri

Weaving the personal and the political with passion and grace, Njeri recounts incidents in the news - the Rodney King beating, the Black boycott of Korean grocers in Los Angeles, and the shooting of a Black teenager by a Korean immigrant - and their profound effect on her as a Black woman and journalist. In doing so, she lays out with precision and power how the imposition of limited definitions of identity based on race contributes to a psychological slavery that makes the mind the last plantation. In accepting a larger, multiracial identity - which would substantially define most Americans - we can challenge marginalizing concepts and the way in which the racial debate is now framed.

With the passionate lyricism of a Maya Angelou and the sharply edged wit of a young Lillian Hellman, award-winning journalist Itabari Njeri creates a kaleidoscopic portrait of the extraordinary family in which she grew up., Njeri?s memoir is improbable, complex, grandly dramatic; from her grandmother Ruby, a West Indian matriarch with a devastating tongue and a reverence for Marcus Garvey and Queen Elizabeth, to her father, a brilliant Marxist historian, to her own travels to Georgia to track down the man who killed her grandfather, Every Good-bye Ain?t Gone is a passionate account of a woman finding herself in a world filled with obstacles, from racism to a surfeit of unreliable men.

Brand-new stories by: Dennis Lehane, Stewart O'Nan, Patricia Powell, John Dufresne, Lynne Heitman, Don Lee, Russ Aborn, Itabari Njeri, Jim Fusilli, Brendan DuBois, and Dana Cameron.Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, The Given Day) has proven himself to be a master of both crime-fiction and literary fiction. Here, he extends his literary prowess to that of master curator. In keeping with the Akashic Noir Series tradition, each story in Boston Noir is set in a different neighborhood of the city; the impressively diverse collection extends from Roxbury to Cambridge, from Southie to the Boston Harbor; and all stops in between. Lehane's own contribution—the longest story in the volume—is set in his beloved home neighborhood of Dorchester and showcases his phenomenal ability to grip the heart, soul, and throat of the reader.In 2003, Lehane's novel Mystic River was adapted into film and quickly garnered six Academy Award nominations (with Sean Penn and Tim Robbins each winning Academy Awards).