Jamel Brinkley – författare

‘Brinkley’s sentences are daggers’ RAVEN LEILANI ‘Extraordinary … moving, compelling and virtuosic’OBSERVER ‘A triumph’ COLIN BARRETT An electric collection of stories set in contemporary New York, from the award-winning author of A Lucky Man and National Book Award finalist, Jamel Brinkley. What does it mean to take action? To bear witness? What does it cost? These stories take us into the heart of contemporary New York City and its residents’ lives. We meet children, grandmothers and even ghosts as they strive to connect, to stand up for, and to really see each other. Their relationships shape not only their own futures but those of their families and their city.In its portraits of families and friendships, Witness enacts its own testimony. Here is a world where fortunes can be made and stolen in a generation, where strangers sometimes show kindness while those we trust—doctors, employers, siblings—too often turn away, where joy comes in snatches.With prose as upendingly beautiful as it is artfully crafted, Jamel Brinkley offers nothing less than the full scope of life and death and change in the great, unending drama of the city.‘Exhilarating and impactful … Each story is a gift’ New York Times‘A dazzling collection by a masterful storyteller’ Yiyun Li, author of The Book of Goose‘Read everything this man writes, and regard the world anew’ Justin Torres, author of We the Animals‘Jamel Brinkley is brilliant, the real thing, a revelation’ Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You‘These are stories of rare beauty and insight, that glitter with humour and hurt, written with lambent clarity and tenderness’ David Hayden, author of Darker With the Lights On‘There is all the involvedness and complexity of a novel in each story, which makes Witness so abundant and wise. A brilliant writer’ Caoilinn Hughes, author of The Wild Laughter‘Read Witness and allow yourself the pleasure of seeing the world as Brinkley sees it' Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House

‘Brinkley’s sentences are daggers’ RAVEN LEILANI ‘Extraordinary … moving, compelling and virtuosic’OBSERVER ‘A triumph’ COLIN BARRETT An electric collection of stories set in contemporary New York, from the award-winning author of A Lucky Man and National Book Award finalist, Jamel Brinkley. What does it mean to take action? To bear witness? What does it cost? These stories take us into the heart of contemporary New York City and its residents’ lives. We meet children, grandmothers and even ghosts as they strive to connect, to stand up for, and to really see each other. Their relationships shape not only their own futures but those of their families and their city.In its portraits of families and friendships, Witness enacts its own testimony. Here is a world where fortunes can be made and stolen in a generation, where strangers sometimes show kindness while those we trust—doctors, employers, siblings—too often turn away, where joy comes in snatches.With prose as upendingly beautiful as it is artfully crafted, Jamel Brinkley offers nothing less than the full scope of life and death and change in the great, unending drama of the city.‘Exhilarating and impactful … Each story is a gift’ New York Times‘A dazzling collection by a masterful storyteller’ Yiyun Li, author of The Book of Goose‘Read everything this man writes, and regard the world anew’ Justin Torres, author of We the Animals‘Jamel Brinkley is brilliant, the real thing, a revelation’ Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You‘These are stories of rare beauty and insight, that glitter with humour and hurt, written with lambent clarity and tenderness’ David Hayden, author of Darker With the Lights On‘There is all the involvedness and complexity of a novel in each story, which makes Witness so abundant and wise. A brilliant writer’ Caoilinn Hughes, author of The Wild Laughter‘Read Witness and allow yourself the pleasure of seeing the world as Brinkley sees it' Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House

'Full of subtle poignancy ... each story is a trenchant exploration of race and class, vividly conveying the tension between social codes of masculinity and the vulnerable, volatile self' New YorkerA National Book Award Finalist'Comfort' has been longlisted for the 2021 Sunday Times Audible Short Story AwardIn the nine unforgettable stories of A Lucky Man, Jamel Brinkley explores the unseen tenderness of black men and boys: the struggle to love and be loved, the invisible ties of family and friendship, and the inescapable forces of race, class and masculinity.A teen intent on proving himself a man at an all-night rave is preoccupied by watching out for his impressionable younger brother. A pair of young men who follow two girls home from a party face the uncomfortable truth of their desires. An imaginative boy from the inner city goes swimming in the suburbs, and faces the effects of privilege in ways he can barely grasp. And at a capoeira conference, two brothers grapple with their painful family history.Moving, lyrical and keen-eyed, A Lucky Man captures the inner lives of men and boys caught between hope and expectation, duty and desire.