A lesson before dying - ernest j. gaines

Set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s, A Lesson Before Dying is an enormously moving (Los Angeles Times) novel of one man condemned to die for a crime he did not commit and a young man who visits him in his cell.

In the end, the two men forge a bond as they both come to understand the simple heroism of resisting--and defying--the expected.

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.

This majestic, moving novel is an instant classic, a book that will be read, discussed and taught beyond the rest of our lives.

-- Chicago Tribune Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, A Lesson Before Dying is a deep and compassionate novel about a young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country to visit a black youth on death row for a crime he didnt commit.

Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting.

From the critically acclaimed author of A Gathering of Old Men and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman .