LUCKY MAN

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION

In the nine expansive, searching stories of A Lucky Man, fathers and sons attempt to salvage relationships with friends and family members and confront mistakes made in the past. An imaginative young boy from the Bronx goes swimming with his group from day camp at a backyard pool in the suburbs, and faces the effects of power and privilege in ways he can barely grasp. A teen intent on proving himself a man through the all-night revel of J’Ouvert can’t help but look out for his impressionable younger brother. A pair of college boys on the prowl follow two girls home from a party and have to own the uncomfortable truth of their desires. And at a capoeira conference, two brothers grapple with how to tell the story of their family, caught in the dance of their painful, fractured history.

Jamel Brinkley’s stories, in a debut that announces the arrival of a significant new voice, reflect the tenderness and vulnerability of black men and boys whose hopes sometimes betray them, especially in a world shaped by race, gender, and class—where luck may be the greatest fiction of all.

IN LUNG PENTRU PREMIUL NATIONAL AL CARTII PENTRU FICTIE In cele noua povesti extinse si de cautare ale unui om norocos, tatii si fiii incearca sa salveze relatiile cu prietenii si membrii familiei si sa confrunte greselile comise in trecut. Un tanar imaginativ din Bronx merge sa inoate cu grupul sau din tabara de zi la o piscina din curtea din suburbie si se confrunta cu efectele puterii si privilegiilor in moduri pe care abia le poate intelege.