Between the World and Me
Between the World and Me is a 2015 nonfiction book written by American author Ta-Nehisi Coates and published by Spiegel & Grau. It is written as a letter to the author's teenage son about the feelings, symbolism, and realities associated with being Black in the United States. Coates recapitulates American history and explains to his son the "racist violence that has been woven into American culture." Coates draws from an abridged, autobiographical account of his youth in Baltimore, detailing the ways in which institutions like the school, the police, and even "the streets" discipline, endanger, and threaten to disembody black men and women. The work takes structural and thematic inspiration from James Baldwin's 1963 epistolary book The Fire Next Time. Unlike Baldwin, Coates sees white supremacy as an indestructible force, one that Black Americans will never evade or erase, but will always struggle against. The novelist Toni Morrison wrote that Coates filled an intellectual gap in succession to James Baldwin. Editors of The New York Times and The New Yorker described the book as exceptional. The book won the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for the 2016
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Between the World and Me
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Framed as a letter to his teenage son, Ta-Nehisi Coates moves from his Baltimore childhood to Howard University to a friend's killing by police, working out what it means to inhabit a Black body in America.
Yes. Between the World and Me won the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for General Nonfiction. It cemented Ta-Nehisi Coates's reputation as a leading voice on race in America.
Between the World and Me is widely taught in high school and college courses. The language and content are mature, suitable for readers 14 and up. It is structured as a letter from Coates to his son, which gives it intergenerational reach.
Between the World and Me is 155 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Between the World and Me takes most readers 2 to 3 hours to finish.
Between the World and Me is a standalone novel by an unknown author, not part of a series.
Between the World and Me is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.