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Review Quotes: "Readers are presented with a memorable and convincing account of how an exceptional individual contested an unjust sentence and formed an emancipating understanding of his own plight . . . An astute reflection on the status of American freedom for the racially and economically marginalized. A poignant, inspirational, and timely account of personal survival and reinvention." -- Kirkus ReviewsReview Quotes: "With remarkable grit and an eye for unnerving detail, Young breathes life into this account of a child caught between love and survival and an adult who overcame near-impossible odds through steadfast belief in himself. It's a stunner." -- Publishers Weekly, starredPublisher Marketing: The inspiring memoir of a brilliant young man who, sentenced to life in prison, refused to surrender his future--a story so powerful that it transformed even the judge who handed down the sentence. If our world were more just, Chris Young would have been crossing a stage at college graduation at the age of 22. Instead, he was marched into a maximum-security federal prison, facing life under mandatory drug sentencing laws. Like far too many young Black men from his neighborhood in Clarksville, Tennessee, this was where his story was supposed to end. But one day in the prison library, a book caught his eye: an encyclopedia. As he began to turn the pages, Chris felt himself transported. Knowledge became a portal. He began to confront the nihilism around him, the trauma of his past, and the cruelty of a system determined to confine him. From the library, his cell, and even solitary confinement, Chris built an education from scratch, studying philosophy, art, anthropology, history, physics, and politics. He learned to analyze the stock market and taught himself how to code without a computer. He trained his mind--and refused to let prison dictate the limits of his imagination. At his sentencing hearing, Chris gave such a moving speech that the judge resigned from his lifetime appointment to the bench and fought to free him. Started in solitary confinement and finished beyond bars, The Wound Is Where the Light Enters is a powerful meditation on choice, consequence, and human potential, told through the story of a man who was never given a chance--and who fought until, at last, he was. Review Citations:
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