“Unforgettable” — The New York Times
Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize
Also honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters with the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award for his books which “illuminate astonishing national inequities through the lens of individual experience.”
Named a Best Book of the Year by:
NPR * The Washington Post * The Economist * The Dallas Morning News * The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal * Kirkus Reviews * The National Book Review
Co-winner of the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Award for Excellence in Nonfiction
“A masterpiece of real-life storytelling.”
“An American Summer is at turns shocking, heartrending, and deeply moving … This is about the soul of our country.”
“An American Summer is an archive of the war—like finding a shocking but beautiful bundle of letters and photographs in the attic. Except that these dispatches reflect the daily violence that many Americans are experiencing, right now, in too many of our cities. Alex Kotlowitz dispenses with wooden categories of criminal and victim. With his uncommon warmth and sensitivity, he makes us understand that violence doesn’t happen in a moment; it’s a state of affairs.”