Yesterday Will Make You Cry — Chester Himes

From the acclaimed author of the Harlem Detectives series, a masterful autobiographical novel about the injustices of the prison system and the humanity that flourishes despite it

Jimmy Monroe is serving a twenty-year sentence for robbery. Terror and chaos reign in the prison, where corrupt, racist guards mete out capricious punishments like time in “the hole,” where inmates' sense of reality slips away in total darkness. When a fire breaks out amid these mounting indignities, it unleashes a deadly mayhem that leaves Jimmy feeling as though his entire world is disintegrating. But in its aftermath, he kindles a tender relationship with a fellow convict named Rico and finally catches a glimmer of hope.

Searing, exquisitely vivid, and ultimately affirming, Yesterday Will Make You Cry is a masterful autobiographical novel about the injustices of the prison system and the humanity that flourishes despite them.