The Residue Years

'This novel is written with a breathtaking, exhilarating assurance and wit. Terrific' The Times

'A wrenchingly beautiful debut by a writer to be reckoned with' Jesmyn Ward

Mitchell S. Jackson grew up black in a neglected neighbourhood in America's whitest city, Portland, Oregon. In the '90s, those streets and beyond had fallen under the shadow of crack cocaine and its familiar mayhem. In his commanding autobiographical novel, Jackson writes what it was like to come of age in that time and place, with a breakout voice that's nothing less than extraordinary.

The Residue Years switches between the perspectives of a young man, Champ, and his mother, Grace. Grace is just out of a drug treatment programme, trying to stay clean and get her kids back. Champ is trying to do right by his mum and younger brothers, and dreams of reclaiming the only home he and his family have ever shared. But selling crack is the only sure way he knows to achieve his dream. In this world of few options and little opportunity, where love is your strength and your weakness, this family fights for family and against what tears one apart.

Honest in its portrayal, with cadences that dazzle, The Residue Years signals the arrival of a writer set to awe.

Winner Whiting Writers' Award

Winner Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence

Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction

“A fresh new voice in fictionI know these characters well. I know the language they speak: voices redolent of struggle and the South displaced to our country's far northwestern corner. A wrenchingly beautiful debutI was touched by characters whose lives were often as real for me as my memories of growing up. The language invented to tell their stories engages, challenges, clarifies the American language, claiming it, enlarging itA raw heartwreck of a novel . . . one of the fictional families I have cared about mostBeautiful sentences that mix urban slang with pitch-perfect lyricism, resulting in a new way of expressing American English - Paris ReviewJackson's dedication to the shadows and unhappiness of his characters shines through - Publishers WeeklyA writer to be reckoned with; The Residue Years marks the beginning of a most promising career”

A sparkling debut . . . Jackson's writing crackles and sparks with startling insights -- Colin Grant Observer
Mitchell S Jackson's traumatic debut novel is written in a heightened, lyrical prose style inspired by the local vernacular. He brings to his narrative not just first-hand experience, but a profound compassion for the deadbeat dads, neglectful mothers, pimps, whores and dealers whose chaotic, intersecting lives form the basis of the story -- Press Association

Mitchell S. Jackson was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. He holds a masters in writing from Portland State University and an MFA from New York University. Jackson has received a Whiting Award and the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. The Residue Years was also a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize and the Hurston Wright Legacy Award. Jackson has been awarded fellowships from TED, the Lannan Foundation and the Centre for Fiction. He teaches writing at NYU and Columbia.

'This novel is written with a breathtaking, exhilarating assurance and wit. Terrific' The Times 'A wrenchingly beautiful debut by a writer to be reckoned with' Jesmyn Ward Mitchell S. Jackson grew up black in a neglected neighbourhood in America's whitest city, Portland, Oregon. In the '90s, those streets and beyond had fallen under the shadow of crack cocaine and its familiar mayhem. In his commanding autobiographical novel, Jackson writes what it was like to come of age in that time and place, with a breakout voice that's nothing less than extraordinary. The Residue Years switches between the perspectives of a young man, Champ, and his mother, Grace. Grace is just out of a drug treatment programme, trying to stay clean and get her kids back. Champ is trying to do right by his mum and younger brothers, and dreams of reclaiming the only home he and his family have ever shared. But selling crack is the only sure way he knows to achieve his dream. In this world of few options and little opportunity, where love is your strength and your weakness, this family fights for family and against what tears one apart.Honest in its portrayal, with cadences that dazzle, The Residue Years signals the arrival of a writer set to awe. Winner Whiting Writers' Award Winner Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction

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