{"product_id":"writing-to-save-a-life-book-john-edgar-wideman-9781501147289","title":"Writing to Save a Life","description":"A major literary figure tells a searching tale of loss, recovery, and deja vu that is part memoir and what-if speculation, part polemic and expos  (\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e) about two generations of one family--civil rights martyr Emmett Till and his father, Louis--shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEmmett Till took a train from his home in Chicago to visit family in Money, Mississippi; a few weeks later he returned home dead. Murdered because he was a colored boy and had, allegedly, whistled at a white woman. His mother, Mamie Till, chose to display her son's brutalized face in a glass-topped casket, so the world can see what they did to my baby. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEmmett Till's murder and his mother's refusal to allow his story to be forgotten have become American legends. But one darkly significant twist in the Till legend is rarely mentioned: Louis Till, Emmett's father, Mamie's husband, a soldier during World War II, was executed in Italy for committing rape and murder. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 1955, when he and Emmett were each only fourteen years old, Wideman saw a horrific photograph of dead Emmett's battered face. Decades later, upon discovering that Louis Till had been court-martialed and hanged, he was impelled to investigate the tragically intertwined fates of father and son. \u003ci\u003eWriting to Save a Life\u003c\/i\u003e is part exploration and part meditation, a searching account of  Wideman's] attempt to learn more about the short life of Louis Till (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e) and shine light on the truths that have remained in darkness. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWideman, the author of the award-winning \u003ci\u003eBrothers and Keepers\u003c\/i\u003e, is a master of quiet meditation...and his book is remarkable for its insight and power (\u003ci\u003eSFGate\u003c\/i\u003e). An amalgam of research, memoir, and imagination, \u003ci\u003eWriting to Save a Life\u003c\/i\u003e is essential and impressive (\u003ci\u003ePittsburgh Post-Gazette\u003c\/i\u003e) reading--an engaging, enlightening conversation between generations, the living and the dead, fathers and sons.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49563002994961,"sku":"GOR008688833","price":9.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50386427674897,"sku":"CIN1501147285G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51328939163921,"sku":"CIN1501147285VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1501147285.jpg?v=1751243277","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/products\/writing-to-save-a-life-book-john-edgar-wideman-9781501147289","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}