內容簡介
二○一五美國國家圖書獎非文學類得主
紐約時報、華爾街日報、洛杉磯時報排行榜第一名
紐約時報書評‧歐普拉雜誌‧華盛頓郵報‧時人雜誌‧娛樂週刊‧Vogue‧洛杉磯時報‧舊金山紀事報‧芝加哥論壇報‧紐約雜誌‧新聞日報‧圖書館期刊‧出版人週刊等各大媒體年度十大好書。
直探內心深處……必讀之作。
──諾貝爾文學獎得主童妮．摩里森（Toni Morrison）
我認爲這本書很可能是今年出版的最重要的一本書。它用一個非常私人化的視角去探討政治問題，反思了政治體制尤其是警察系統的無能和效率低下對黑人的影響──不僅是恐懼，更是絕望，你覺得自己對改變政治現狀完全無能爲力。
──美國國家圖書獎基金會執行主席奧根布勞姆（Harold Augenbraum）
兒子，這是你的國家，這是你的世界，這是你的軀體，你必須設法安居其中。
「以這副黑人軀體，我如何活得自由自在？」二○○○年九月，剛成為爸爸的科茨在報上看到大學時期友人瓊斯遭警察開槍射殺，十五年後，他以書信體完成這本書，對兒子薩莫里陳述身為黑人成長過程中的恐懼，比如害怕警察、害怕上街；即便具有黑人血統的歐巴馬已當了八年美國總統，科茨仍說，「切記，我們在美國被奴役的時代比自由長。」過往，黑人被奴役、被隔離，現在則被威脅、被拘禁、被謀殺，受害不成比例。白人至上主義仍舊為代代黑人套上枷鎖。
科茨以犀利、自剖的散文筆觸，描述自己認同的追尋，探究恐懼感的根源，批判民主美國的偽善，指出法律成為執法者以暴力攻擊黑人的正當理由。他認為瓊斯不是被單一警察所殺，而是被國家所殺，被恐懼感奪魂。小時候他父親會以拳頭揍他，因為「他不是挨我揍，就等著挨警察揍」。科茨說，每個黑人小孩有三分之一的腦袋是在煩惱身體受到侵害與暴力。
本書出版後引起廣泛爭議，使科茨屢屢成為種族問題討論的代表人物。《經濟學人》書評稱，「科茨的書信體不僅形式陳舊，而且滿腔憤怒。」然而科茨不是在控訴，而是深刻呈現種族不平等的影響。他也不販賣絕望，鼓勵兒子要奮鬥下去。《在世界與我之間》既是傑出的回憶錄也是美國民權運動史的批判之作。
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In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.