Winner of the Academy of Arts and Letters Harold D. This spectacular book is an urgent call to bear witness, not to the dying that violence breeds, but to the love that stands tall amidst the debris.” - Maaza Mengiste, author of Beneath the Lion's Gaze Kotlowitz reminds us again and again that what happens in Chicago reflects the best and worst of our nation.

“What remains after the deaths, the funerals, the court hearings, the jail sentences, the mourning? This is the question at the heart of Alex Kotlowitz's compassionate and unflinching new book, and what emerges speaks to a stubborn, immovable, singular drive towards hope and forgiveness. by Julian Rubinstein Published 2022 About this book An award-winning journalist's dramatic account of a shooting that shook a community to its core, with important implications for the future We have 6 read-alikes for An American Summer, but non-members are limited to two results. An American Summer has done it again.” - Wes Moore, author of the bestseller The Other Wes Moore There Are No Children Here changed me when I read it years ago. With his uncommon warmth and sensitivity, he makes us understand that violence doesn’t happen in a moment it’s a state of affairs.” - Sarah Koenig, creator and host of Serial Alex Kotlowitz dispenses with wooden categories of criminal and victim. Except that these dispatches reflect the daily violence that many Americans are experiencing, right now, in too many of our cities. “ An American Summer is an archive of the war-like finding a shocking but beautiful bundle of letters and photographs in the attic.

An American Summer by Alex Kotlowitz