United States
![Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B07C45XZH3.jpg)
Chain Gang All Stars: A Novel
A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK • A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR • Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America's own in this explosive, hotly-anticipated debut novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Friday Black
"Like Orwell's 1984 and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Adjei-Brenyah's book presents a dystopian vision so…illuminating that it should permanently shift our understanding of who we are and what we're capable of doing." -The Washington Post
"This book will change you!...A masterpiece." -Jenna Bush Hager, The Today Show's #ReadWithJenna
She felt their eyes, all those executioners…
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.
In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.
Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means from a "new and necessary American voice" (Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review).
"Like Orwell's 1984 and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Adjei-Brenyah's book presents a dystopian vision so…illuminating that it should permanently shift our understanding of who we are and what we're capable of doing." -The Washington Post
"This book will change you!...A masterpiece." -Jenna Bush Hager, The Today Show's #ReadWithJenna
She felt their eyes, all those executioners…
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.
In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.
Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means from a "new and necessary American voice" (Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review).
Editorial Reviews
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK BY: New York Times, Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, Goodreads, Elle, Oprah Daily, Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan, The Root, Essence, Salon, Seattle Times, Huffington Post, WBUR's "Here and Now", The Week, Men's Health, YahooLife, Sunset Magazine, Lit Hub, Book Riot, Tor.com, CrimeReads, The Everygirl, The Millions, Lit-Reactor, Our Culture, Republican American, Women's Wear Daily, Daily Press, Columbia Daily Tribune, The Independent, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus
*Roxane Gay's May Selection for the Audacious Book Club*
"Like Orwell's 1984 and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Adjei-Brenyah's book presents a dystopian vision so upsetting and illuminating that it should permanently shift our understanding of who we are and what we're capable of doing…So raw and tragic and primal is Chain-Gang All-Stars that despite its futuristic elements, it has the patina of some timeworn epic…Shockingly intimate and moving."
-Washington Post
"One of the most exciting young writers in America. His work is urgent, engaging, wildly entertaining, formally bold, and politically electrifying. Read one page, any page, and you'll see what I mean."
-George Saunders, author of Liberation Day
"Vividly imaginative and startling in its clarity of intent...A sort of The Hunger Games meets Gladiator meets WWE meets the modern private prison system."
-Elle
"A cross between Gladiator and The Hunger Games......
*Roxane Gay's May Selection for the Audacious Book Club*
"Like Orwell's 1984 and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Adjei-Brenyah's book presents a dystopian vision so upsetting and illuminating that it should permanently shift our understanding of who we are and what we're capable of doing…So raw and tragic and primal is Chain-Gang All-Stars that despite its futuristic elements, it has the patina of some timeworn epic…Shockingly intimate and moving."
-Washington Post
"One of the most exciting young writers in America. His work is urgent, engaging, wildly entertaining, formally bold, and politically electrifying. Read one page, any page, and you'll see what I mean."
-George Saunders, author of Liberation Day
"Vividly imaginative and startling in its clarity of intent...A sort of The Hunger Games meets Gladiator meets WWE meets the modern private prison system."
-Elle
"A cross between Gladiator and The Hunger Games......
