Ta-Nehisi Coates

This was the abyss where, unguided, black boys were swallowed whole, only to re-emerge on corners and prison tiers.

Ta-Nehisi Coates grew up in the tumultuous 1980's in Baltimore known, back then as the murder capital of the United States. With seven siblings, four mothers, and one highly unconventional father: Paul Coates, a larger-than-life Vietnam Vet, Black Panther, Ta-Nehisi's coming of age story is gripping and lays bare the troubled, often violent life of the inner-city, and the author's experience as a young black person in it.

With candor, Ta-Nehisi Coates details the challenges on the streets and within one's family, especially the eternal struggle for peace between a father and son and the important role family plays in such circumstances.

Hiram Walker is a man with a secret, and a war to win. A war for the right to life, to family, to freedom. Born into bondage on a Virginia plantation, he is also born gifted with a mysterious power that he won't discover until he is almost a man, when he risks everything for a chance to escape. One fateful decision will carry him away from his makeshift plantation family and into the heart of the underground war on slavery...