Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Chain-Gang All-Stars is the latest pick for Jenna Bush Hager’s Today show book club.
Adjei-Brenyah’s novel, which is scheduled for publication next week by Pantheon, follows two women prisoners who compete as gladiators for their freedom in a series of death matches. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Imagine The Hunger Games refashioned into a rowdy, profane, and indignant blues shout at full blast.”
Hager announced her selection on the Today show, also invoking Suzanne Collins’ series of novels.
“Think Hunger Games for adults,” she said. “It is a book that pushed me in ways that I’ve never been pushed before. It pushed me out of my comfort zone as a reader, which I think is important to do.…It’s really grounded, and it’s about how desensitized we’ve become to violence, and a commentary on the prison-industrial complex. This book will move you, and you will love it, and it will make you discuss everything.”
Adjei-Brenyah spoke about his book with a reporter for the Today show website, saying, “The book is not enough. In my real life I try to engage in spaces that help address our carceral system and our systems at large. Violence is the rule in America. A big part of my artistic project is to make compassion the rule.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
