CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS

"...breathtaking and pulse-pounding ... (...) the author delivers insightful critiques of the prison-industrial complex, capitalism, and the ways in which Hollywood and celebrity culture exploit Black talent. Both the political allegory and the edge-of-your-seat action work beautifully. Readers will be wowed." (starred review)

Jenna Bush Hager's May 2023 book club pick “This book will change you! A masterpiece.” (Jenna Bush Hager) Read more...

"An acerbic, poignant, and, at times, alarmingly pertinent dystopian novel In his debut short story collection, Friday Black, Adjei-Brenyah displayed a prodigious flair for deadpan satiric narratives set in alternate realities that often seem uncomfortably close to our own, especially regarding race and class divisions. With his first novel, he proves he can sustain his outrage, imagination, wit, and compassion for a deeper dive into the darker reaches of the American soul Adjei-Brenyah displays his impressive range of tone and voice It is an up-to-the-minute j'accuse that speaks to the eternal question of what it truly means to be free. And human. Imagine The Hunger Games refashioned into a rowdy, profane, and indignant blues shout at full blast.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Vividly imaginative and startling in its clarity of intent...A sort of The Hunger Games meets Gladiator meets WWE meets the modern private prison system.” —Elle "[An] acclaimed master of our futuristic nightmares a keen observer of racial and socioeconomic disparities that result in a high number of Black people incarcerated. While this is set in the future, it feels uncomfortably close to the present.” —Oprah Daily "A brutal, heart-wrenching story that feels so close to reality...A tale of survival and resistance in an unfair prison system...about a group of prisoners who decide to fight to the death for the one thing they want most: freedom." —Cosmopolitan "Adjei-Brenyah may have the buzziest book of the year...A ferocious attack on America's for-profit prison systems." —Goodreads' Most Anticipated Books of 2023 “A clear-eyed critique of our country's prison system, along with the profit and racism inherent in them.” —Salon “[A] blazing debut novel A damning indictment of mass incarceration, systemic racism, and the grotesqueries of unfettered American capitalism, Chain-Gang All-Stars is also a breathless dystopian thriller.” —Lit Hub "Adjei-Brenyah's debut novel is equal parts Squid Game and Riot Baby, but also brought to mind Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man Adjei-Brenyah writes characters that are both larger than life and intimately human It is funny, it is brutal, and it is an extremely necessary text.” —Tor.com “With his sharp eye for satire and reverence for humanity, Adjei-Brenyah's latest explores the exploitation, violence, and false promises of the prison industrial complex, capitalism, and the country itself.” —The Millions “Chain-Gang All-Stars should pique your interest if titles like Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Atwood's Handmaid's Tale are more your vibe.” —The Week “At once a kaleidoscopic, imaginative examination of America's unjust prison system, and a fantasy-tinged spectacle, Chain-Gang All-Stars is likely to excite and provoke in equal measure.” —Our Culture “A searing debut with an unforgettable voice, Chain-Gang All-Stars will force you to reevaluate what freedom in America really means.” —Lit-Reactor “Searingly entertaining.” —Publishers Weekly, “An Interview with the Year 2023”

UK: Harvill Secker; NL: Atlas Contact; Italy: Edizioni Sur; France: Albin Michel; Brazil: Fosforo Editora; Japan: Shueisha;

A MOST ANTICIPATED TITLE OF THE YEAR in: Washington Post, Goodreads, Elle, Oprah Daily, Cosmopolitan, Salon, Seattle Times, Huffington Post, WBUR's “Here and Now”, The Week, YahooLife, Sunset Magazine, Lit Hub, Book Riot, Tor.com, The Everygirl, The Millions, Lit-Reactor, Our Culture, Republican American, Women's Wear Daily, The Independent, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus Roxane Gay's May Selection for the Audacious Book Club

"A writer who was up to the ideological but not the emotional task of such a novel might have settled for thinner characters. But Adjei-Brenyah, flitting from perspective to perspective in brisk chapters, assumes all of them easily and fills the characters' inner lives to the brim, especially those of the incarcerated. These people navigate their feelings of permeating, heartbreaking guilt, but also their wellness routines, fickle romances, creaky joints, fading memories of civilian life, inane daydreams. The society in which they live defines them by their worst deeds, but the writer of this novel refuses to." Read more...

"One of the most exciting young writers in America. His work is urgent, engaging, wildly entertaining, formally bold, and politically electrifying. Read one page, any page, and you'll see what I mean.” —George Saunders, author of Liberation Day "Given how incredible his debut collection was and is, it is no surprise to me that Adjei-Brenyah's debut novel is this extraordinary! Told with bold, muscular prose, this book is filled with surprising tenderness. Some of the best and most beautiful descriptions of action and violence I have ever read, which is not to say the book celebrates violence so much as it uses violence to explore American incarceration by imagining it as spectacle. As big as it is dazzling. Just wild how good and original this book is. A revelation!” —Tommy Orange, author of There, There "As vital as it is brutal. Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah illuminates darkness with the electricity of his prose. The massive weight of the subject is matched by the sheer scope of Adjei-Brenyah's imagination. A startling, important novel that will inspire and inform many conversations." —Charles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown "A defiant, awe-inspiring novel that will be read, studied, and celebrated for generations, Chain-Gang All-Stars leads with love. Adjei-Brenyah writes with stunning compassion and moral clarity as he interrogates every facet of our carceral world and the American spectacle of violence, never losing sight of the human cost of systemic injustice. Readers will be forever changed by this book.” —Jessamine Chan, author of The School for Good Mothers "Chain-Gang All-Stars makes explicit how the spirit erodes as the body becomes currency. Adjei-Brenyah writes sharply about the economy of spectacle and the fickle alchemy between futility and hope.” —Raven Leilani, author of Luster “Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's Chain-Gang All-Stars is an uncanny, singular feat of literature. I've never read satire so bruising, so brolic, so tender and really, so pitch-perfect. It's nuts brilliant. Just read it!” —Kiese Laymon “Adjei-Brenyah is a magician. A master trickster. He draws you in with his words, surrounds you with wonder and awe, makes you think you're in a new world, one you've never visited before, until you realize this is our world and you, we, are complicit. And yet I felt nothing but gratitude for the feelings this novel elicited: guilt and regret, sorrow and pain, disgust, horror, but also an immense exuberance, the sheer joy of being alive. This novel is alive and glorious. Give it all the awards.” – Hannah Harlow, Bookshop of Beverly Farms

"Like Orwell's 1984 and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Adjei-Brenyah's book presents a dystopian vision so illuminating that it should permanently shift our understanding of who we are and what we're capable of doing...So raw and tragic and primal is “Chain-Gang All-Stars” that despite its futuristic elements, it has the patina of some timeworn epic." (Ron Charles) Read more...

"The Genre Novel Has a New Maestro" Read more...