Between the World and Me

By: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Narrated by: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Number-one New York Times best seller
National Book Award winner
Named one of Time’s Ten Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade
Pulitzer Prize finalist
National Book Critics Circle Award finalist

Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading”, a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone).

Named one of the Most Influential Books of the Decade by CNN

Named one of Paste’s Best Memoirs of the Decade

Named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly

In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis.

Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race”, a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of Black women and men - bodies exploited through slavery and segregation and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a Black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son - and listeners - the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder.

Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

©2015 Ta-Nehisi Coates (P)2015 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Ta-Nehisi Coates's delivery of his own book is so memorable because the material is charged with emotion and a tone of self-disclosure. There's also a highly personal sense of connection between himself and his audience because of his frequent use of 'you.'" (AudioFile)

"The language of Between the World and Me, like Coates's journey, is visceral, eloquent, and beautifully redemptive.... This is required reading." (Toni Morrison)

Beautifully expressed

As the mother of a white son, I know that I can never understand the fear of any person of any color trying to raise a son into adulthood. This book comes very close to helping me see through this fathers eyes. Thank you.

Absolutely. Everything.

I felt like a fly on the wall as I listened to Coates counsel his son. The words are so powerful on their own and become electrified by the author's voice - a deep, Baltimore, accent that paints a vivid picture. I'd recommend this book for every American who gives a damn about the nation's future and knows an ounce about its past. Great read.

Moving

Hard truths America needs to understand about itself told powerfully. Truths I needed to hear. A book I will require that my teenager read and that I wish would be taught in his school.

Transformative

Once and a while you "pick up" a book that transforms you. This is one of those. It left me realizing that as one of the dreamers just how delusion my world view and sense of self importance can be. It is a beautifully written and thought provoking.

Thought provoking read, but not without flaw

It is a powerful narrative and extremely thought provoking, but I had some issues. The first is that it danced around for an hour before the author got into the meat of what he was trying to convey. Pretty much the first hour I found myself constantly asking where he was taking me. Then the book moved into talking about Coates experience in 'the mecca' of Howard University and his own process of maturation before ultimately culminating in his reaction of (not close) classmate at the hands of a black cop. The writing was powerful, but I'm still left asking why. He kept saying saying the black cop that killed Prince Jones was acting as an arm of the society that "thought itself white" but I never really grasped how that happened. Maybe that's my own lack of understanding on the subject.

Secondly, I saw Ta-Nehisi Coates on the daily show write before I purchased the book. He said that using the format of a letter to his son wasn't real, just a 'literary convention'. To me, that took away down degree of sincerity that was forever lost.

Thirdly, Coates frequently says "axe" rather than "ask". Perhaps this too was a literary convention, but for someone with such beautiful command of the English language to so brutally mispronounce a word was distressing. Every time he said it, and there were many times, it was like nails on a chalkboard derailing the otherwise lyrical content.

In the end it was a good listen guaranteed to make you think. But some of those thoughts are guaranteed to be "huh?".

Most Memorable Moment

The most memorable moment was his discription of his trip to Paris with his son.

Perfection

Poetry in every word and I am also schooled...a dreamer no more. A classic which I will carry with me all my life.

Powerful, hard hitting truths, transformational

What an incredible way to share the black struggle, story and identity by a father to his son. Powerful.

Engaging

Extremely moving . Poetic and beautifully presented.
I have learned so much.
I want to be hopeful.
Thank you.

wordsmith

I thought the reading was too short. So wanted the story to continue. Definitely going to listen again