This national bestseller chronicles the true story of two brothers coming of age in the Henry Horner public housing complex in Chicago. Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers are eleven and nine years old when the story begins in the summer of 1987. Living with their mother and six siblings, they struggle against grinding poverty, gun violence, gang influences, overzealous police officers, and overburdened and neglectful bureaucracies.
Immersed in their lives for two years, Kotlowitz brings us this classic rendering of growing up poor in America’s cities. There Are No Children Here was selected by the New York Public Library as one of the 150 most important books of the twentieth century. It was later made into a television movie for ABC, produced by and starring Oprah Winfrey.
Alex Kotlowitz’s honors include the George Foster Peabody Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and the George Polk Award. A former staff writer at the Wall Street Journal, his work has appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic, and the New Yorker, as well as on public radio’s This American Life and on PBS’s Frontline. He is also the author of Never a City So Real and The Other Side of the River.
Dion Graham is a multiple Audie award–winning narrator and a critically acclaimed actor who has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, internationally, in films, and in several hit television series, including HBO's The Wire. His performances have been praised as thoughtful, compelling, vivid, and full of life.