The Kid

(Paperback)

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Description

The breathtaking follow-up to Push, the bestselling novel that inspired the Academy-Award winning film Precious Abdul Jones is nine years old when his mother Precious dies. Parentless, he is sent first to a foster home and then to a Catholic orphanage. But the priests charged to care for him abuse his trust terribly.And Abdul, a victim, finds that he reacts in the most frightening way imaginable. Soon he is trapped in a dark cycle of sexual violence and betrayal. Yet through dance, in controlling his body, he discovers a way he might somehow break free and become himself . . .A harrowing and powerful novel set in New York, The Kid is a portrait of a boy forced to grow up in a cruel and callous world.

Reviews

Sapphire never flinches from the truth -- Bidisha * Guardian *
Captures the gruelling heartbreak of trying to love anything when the world doesn't love you enough * New York Herald Tribune *
Prepare to be harrowed; I was sobbing by the end of the first chapter . . . [Sapphire] writes with a burning anger that gives this novel an explosive power * The Times *
Sapphire is not your average writer. Brave, bold and uncompromising . . . The breathtaking velocity and visceral power of her prose soars off the page . . . The novel keeps you on tenterhooks -- Bernardine Evaristo * Observer *
Explicit and damning in its depiction of a forgotten underclass . . . Stunning . . . Exhilarating * Independent *
A dark and punishing tale * Big Issue *
The Kid is deeply moving * Essence *
Harrowing . . . Masterfully narrated . . . Powerful * Diva *
Abdul's story is frighteningly realistic . . . The novel itself is a consummate work of art, style and brains, shining at times with the possibility for hope and joy . . . More accomplished than [Push] and a thousand times more frightening * The List *
Painstakingly beautiful * Scotland on Sunday *

Author Bio

Sapphire is the author of two collections of poetry and the bestselling novel Push. The film adaption of her novel, Precious (2009), received the Academy Award for Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress, in addition to the Grand Jury Prize and Audience awards in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance. In 2009 she was a recipient of a United States Artist Fellowship. She lives in New York City.