The Last Thing You Surrender

By: Leonard Pitts Jr.

Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn

Could you find the courage to do what's right in a world on fire?

Pulitzer-winning journalist and best-selling author (Freeman) Leonard Pitts, Jr.'s new historical novel is a great American tale of race and war, following three characters from the Jim Crow South as they face the enormous changes World War II triggers in the United States.

An affluent white marine survives Pearl Harbor at the cost of a black messman's life only to be sent, wracked with guilt, to the Pacific and taken prisoner by the Japanese. A young black woman, widowed by the same events at Pearl Harbor, finds unexpected opportunity and a dangerous friendship in a segregated Alabama shipyard feeding the war. A black man, who as a child saw his parents brutally lynched, is conscripted to fight Nazis for a country he despises and discovers a new kind of patriotism in the all-black 761st Tank Battalion.

Set against a backdrop of violent racial conflict on both the front lines and the home front, The Last Thing You Surrender explores the powerful moral struggles of individuals from a divided nation. What does it take to change someone's mind about race? What does it take for a country and a people to move forward, transformed?

©2019 Leonard Pitts, Jr. (P)2019 Tantor

I love this story

Immensely creative! I loved how the author tired of all of the characters together. I also found it interesting how people change for the better in this story. It gave me a better perspective on segregation in the Deep South.. I love this book

Poignant

A powerful reminder of where weve come
From and how far we have to go.

Thought Provoking

This book deals with a difficult social issue in a thought provoking way. I read over a hundred books a year and this is the best by far.

Excellent Book

This book was such a great book that tells of our history. It explored racism and how black people must feel about their horrible treatment. it tells about black men serving in the military to fight for their country, when their country treated so badly. This was such a well written book that I enjoyed immensely.

Excellent story but...the narrator

Like his other novels, Leonard Pitts Jr, tells a poignant often heart breaking story of struggle and triumph centering African-American experiences in America through historical fiction. This one also highlights non POC in a thought provoking and interesting way. Overall, I enjoyed the story but, the narrator was sub par in my opinion. His voice had a commercial quality that took away from the story. There were also a few editing issues.
Still worth the read(listen)!

An Epic American Novel

An epic American novel covering WWII from the dual perspectives of a Black American family living thru the horrors of Jim Crow Alabama, the rampant discrimination in the US military during the war, and a White Southern lawyer and his son who endured the war fighting in the South Pacific and 2 years in a Japanese POW camp.
The characters were real, developed with great depth, and the interlocking stories were riveting. Descriptions of the war, both in Europe and the South Pacific were hard to read, that is, well researched and accurate in some of their gruesome details.
All of the main character's lives are profoundly changed during the 3 years of the war - with repercussions still happening today
I'm a huge fan of Leonard Pitts, Jr.'s journalism; now I can't wait to read his other novels.
I thought the narrator got off to a shaky start, but improved quickly.
great book on all counts.

ONE OF OUR BOOK CLUB FAVORITES!

This was discussed recently in our Book Club in Chapel Hill - was one of our favorites. The writing was very well done - made you feel like you were right there, every step of the way!

Amazing Story

Just wow! Leonard Pitts Jr is a giant in the historical fiction world in my book. This book has excellent pacing and keeps you on the edge of your seat. Within it is all the lessons we hope mankind has learned since WW2. We hope…this was my second reading of this book and it was just as wonderful the second time around.

Excellent historical novel.

Well written story of struggle, war, racism, love, brotherhood/sisterhood, courage, faith, and the triumph of the human spirit.

Hell

I enjoyed this book for bringing to life the real story of life for Black people in the American South during the Jim Crow era. I liked how the story was told unvarnished - it didn't have to be real because it was factual. Black people lived through the hell white people created for them. White people lived their own hell. It has to be some form of hell to hate something, someone every day you live and breathe. And then to be the black/white person who acknowledges the wrong-ness of the Jim Crow South and be helpless to change it- another level of hell.