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When his then five-year-old daughter, Nola, asked her daddy why, he realized that to answer her honestly, he had to confront what almost killed him—the weight of being a Black man in America; of bearing witness, as a journalist, to relentless Black death; and of a family history scarred by enslavement, lynching, the Great Migration, the also insidious racism of the North, and gun violence that stole the lives of two great-uncles, a grandfather, a stepbrother, and two cousins. In this powerful narrative, Lee weaves together three strands: the long and bloody history of African Americans and guns; his work as a chronicler of gun violence, tallying the costs and riches generated by both the legal and illegal gun industries; and his own life story. With unflinching honesty he takes readers on a journey, from almost being caught up in gun violence as a young man, to tracing the legacy of the Middle Passage in Ghana through his ancestors’ footsteps, to confronting the challenges of representing his people in an overwhelmingly white and often hostile media world, and most importantly, to celebrating the enduring strength of his family and community. In A Thousand Ways to Die , Lee answers Nola and all who seek a more just America. He shares the hard truths and complexities of the Black experience, but he also celebrates the beauty and resilience that is Nola’s legacy.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781250098016","publication_date":"20250909","publisher":"St. Martin's Press","slug":"a-thousand-ways-to-die","subtitle":"The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America","title":"A Thousand Ways to Die"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"BIO002010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Black & African American Lives","score":0.7691,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"YAN038110","confidence_band":"medium","label":"African American U.S. History for Teens","score":0.7404,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"YAN051180","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Prejudice & Racism for Teens","score":0.7302,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"BIO002010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Black & African American Lives","score":0.7691,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"YAN038110","confidence_band":"medium","label":"African American U.S. History for Teens","score":0.7404,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"YAN051180","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Prejudice & Racism for Teens","score":0.7302,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BIO002010","confidence_band":"high","label":"Black & African American Lives","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"BIO026000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Personal Memoirs","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS056000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Black History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Black & African American Lives","score":0.7691,"slug":"black-african-american-lives"},{"label":"African American U.S. History for Teens","score":0.7404,"slug":"african-american-u-s-history-for-teens"},{"label":"Prejudice & Racism for Teens","score":0.7302,"slug":"prejudice-racism-for-teens"}],"reader_fit":["For readers interested in guns and Black life in America","For readers drawn to personal stories of family and racial justice"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Tracy Price-Thompson"],"book_id":"9781416533047","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781416533047.jpg?v=544d77862a446fc6","score":0.6859,"title":"Gather Together in My Name","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781416533047"},{"authors":["Jesmyn Ward"],"book_id":"9781608197651","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781608197651.jpg?v=e4a7c6f0018d2f3b","score":0.6831,"title":"Men We Reaped","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781608197651"},{"authors":["Jason Reynolds"],"book_id":"9781481438261","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781481438261.jpg?v=9b737bd09f9e9ea5","score":0.6798,"title":"Long Way Down","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781481438261"},{"authors":["Jay Coles"],"book_id":"9780316472180","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780316472180.jpg?v=97a41adff3601059","score":0.6765,"title":"Tyler Johnson Was Here","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780316472180"},{"authors":["Ta-Nehisi Coates"],"book_id":"9780812993547","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780812993547.jpg?v=cf55628171d74883","score":0.6754,"title":"Between the World and Me","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780812993547"},{"authors":["Geoffrey Canada"],"book_id":"9780807044612","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780807044612.jpg?v=5287836fd67a2dd6","score":0.675,"title":"Fist Stick Knife Gun","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780807044612"},{"authors":["S. 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