New Releases by Jeff Hobbs

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker In the tradition of Evicted and Invisible Child, a “remarkably vivid...deeply empathetic” (Los Angeles Times) story that follows a single mother of six in Los Angeles courageously struggling to keep her family together and her children in school amid the devastating housing crisis—from the bestselling author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace. In 2018, poverty and domestic violence cast Evelyn and her children into the urban wilderness of Los Angeles, where she avoids the family crisis network that offers no clear pathway for her children to remain together and in a decent school. For the next five years, Evelyn works full time as a waitress—yet remains unable to afford legitimate housing or qualify for government aid. All the while, she delivers her children to school every day and strives to provide them with loving memories and college aspirations. Eventually Evelyn encounters Wendi, a recently trained social worker who, decades earlier, survived her own relationship trauma and housing crisis. Evelyn becomes one of Wendi’s first clients, and the relationship transforms them both. Told from the perspectives of Evelyn, Wendi, and Evelyn’s teenaged son Orlando, Seeking Shelter is a “remarkably vivid and…deeply empathetic” (Los Angeles Times) exploration of homelessness, poverty, and education in America—a must-read for anyone interested in understanding not just social inequality and economic disparity in our society but also the power of a mother’s love and vision for her kids.

"Very little has been written about juvenile justice. In the greater consciousness, the word ''justice'' in this context has been leeched of meaning; it just signifies prison for kids. But to those living and working in various capacities within that system, the word "justice" holds a sepulchral gravity. In Children of the State, bestselling author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace Jeff Hobbs presents three different true stories that show the day-to-day life and the existential challenges faced by those living and working in juvenile programs: educators, counselors, administrators, and-most importantly-children. While serving a year-long detention in Wilmington, DE-perennially one of the violent crime capitols of America-a bright but stunted young man considers the benefits and also the immense costs of striving for college acceptance while imprisoned. A career juvenile hall English Language Arts teacher struggles to align the small moments of wonder in her work alongside its overall statistical futility, all while the city government presumes to design a new juvenile system without cinderblocks-and possibly without those teaching in the current system. A territorial fistfight in Paterson, NJ is characterized by the media as a hate crime, and the boy held accountable for that crime seeks redemption and friendship in a rigorous Life & Professional Skills class in lower Manhattan. These stories are followed to their knotty conclusions in triptych form. In chronicling the work of this constellation of people trying to accomplish good work in abjectly horrible systems and circumstances, Children of the State asks: What should society do with young people who have made terrible decisions? For many kids, a woeful mistake made at age thirteen or fourteen-often as a result of external factors bearing upon a biologically immature brain-will resonate through the rest of their lives, making high school difficult, college nearly impossible, and a middle class life a foolish fantasy. To observe these missteps and raw challenges and small triumphs from shoulder height, through the experiences of thinking, feeling, poignant young people, is to be moved to consider altering the fixed narrative currently laid out of them. As Hobbs demonstrates in piercing, vivid prose: No one so young should ever be considered irredeemable"--

"Traces the academic pursuits of four Los Angeles high school boys with very different backgrounds and resources who navigate challenges in class, race, expectations, cultural divides and luck to attend college."--Publisher.

Il protagonista del racconto è Robert, uno dei tanti afroamericani che abitano i poveri sobborghi di Newark, un''infanzia difficilissima, e un''adolescenza cupa e brutale. Ma Robert Peace non è uno come gli altri, Robert è migliore e grazie alla sua eccezionale intelligenza riesce a superare le selezioni ed entrare nella prestigiosa università di Yale. E a Yale diventa un genio della biochimica. Ma il ghetto chiama, il ghetto ha sempre richiamato Robert a sé, e forse è per amore dei suoi simili che decide di tornare a insegnare nella stessa difficile scuola superiore in cui ha trascorso la sua triste adolescenza. Il destino però è beffardo e i problemi economici fanno ripiombare Robert nell''inferno che pareva ormai soltanto un ricordo. La vità è dura e Robert comincia a spacciare, e poco dopo, viene brutalmente assassinato ad appena 30 anni. Cosa rende la storia di Peace degna di essere letta? La domanda ha una risposta semplice: Jeff Hobbs, autore tra i più talentuosi della sua generazione e, caso incredibile, compagno di stanza di Peace durante gli anni di Yale. Venuto a conoscenza della morte dell''ex compagno, Hobbs intraprende un vero tour de force per incontrare e parlare con tutti quelli che hanno conosciuto Robert e che ne sono rimasti affascinati. Il risultato è un toccante e profondo racconto, la storia di una breve e tragica vita spezzata. Lo stile di Hobbs è secco, asciutto, senza fronzoli. E la storia di Peace, come accade per i Clutter di Capote, è la storia di molti, è la storia di un destino crudele, che può essere dalla nostra parte, almeno per un po'', e poi riprendersi in un attimo tutto ciò che ci ha donato. Jeff Hobbs, è uno scrittore americano, vive a Los Angeles, questo è il suo secondo libro

Jeff Hobbs tells the story of Robert DeShaun Peace, who went from a New Jersey ghetto to Yale but never truly escaped his past.

"When Ethan and Samona have a chance encounter at a gallery opening, they meet each other''s needs. As our narrator traverses the city and gradually reconstructs the events that underlie the present circumstances, his own mysterious role comes into ever sharper focus. Only later, after David commissions Ethan to design some conference rooms at his firm and a secret triangle is formed, does our narrator begin to tie all the pieces together."--BOOK JACKET.