Chain-gang All-stars

By (author) Adjei-Brenyah, Nana Kwame
Description:

FIGHT FOR FREEDOM. FIGHT FOR LOVE. WELCOME TO THE KILLING GROUND.

Enter a world where, livestreamed to millions, prisoners fight like gladiators for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

''America''s new Hunger Games'' SUNDAY TIMES
''So good. This one is from the heart'' STEPHEN KING

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD**
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE TIKTOK BOOK AWARDS**

Fan-favourite female stars Loretta Thurwar and Hamara ‘Hurricane Staxxx’ Stacker are teammates and lovers. Thurwar is nearing the end of her time on the circuit, free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. But as protestors clash with the baying crowds and the programme’s corporate owners stack the odds against her – will the price be simply too high?

‘Brutal, thrilling, devastating and beautiful’ THE TIMES

‘So compelling – right up to the final, fatal blow’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

‘Defiant, awe-inspiring’ JESSAMINE CHAN

‘Vividly imaginative and startling’ ELLE

‘The new maestro of dystopian lit’ WIRED

‘A pure fire page turner’ MAX PORTER


Shortlisted for the TikTok Book Awards, International Book of the Year, 2024

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Criminally entertaining.
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Adjei-Brenyah''s acerbic vision lands like a lightning bolt of truth.
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Grimly funny, epically violent and - at times - surprisingly tender. Quite the ride.
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Magnificent. A radical interrogation of incarceration, racism, entertainment, the whole fabric of American injustice, as well as a pure fire page turner.
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A sort of The Hunger Games meets Gladiator meets WWE meets the modern private prison system.
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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... Shockingly intimate and moving.
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Compelling... The range of different narrators provides a smart 360-degree perspective of the too-familiar society that demands murder for entertainment.
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A brutal, heart-wrenching story that feels so close to reality.
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A hugely imaginative read - the world-building is masterful... Unmissable.
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One of the most exciting young writers in America.
Biographical note:
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah was raised in Spring Valley, New York, and now lives in the Bronx. His debut collection, Friday Black, was a New York Times bestseller, won the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize. His first novel Chain-Gang All-Stars was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Books Are My Bag Awards, and selected as a New York Times Top Ten Books of the Year. Adjei-Brenyah is a National Book Foundation’s ‘5 Under 35’ honoree.