Upstate - Hardcover

'Wow! Just wow! Very occasionally you come across a book that is not just something to while away a couple of hours, but something you know is beyond entertainment. It's important, gut-wrenching and possibly the best insight into the mentality of an American teenage culture ... a book that's impossible to forget' -- Daily Record 20050416 'Raw, tender and emotional, every word of this accomplished debut rings painfully and beautifully true'. -- Sainsbury's Magazine 20050501 'A raw account of divided love'. -- B Magazine 20050501 'The street-smart language often crackles'. -- Marie Claire 20050501 'A touching tale ... Kalisha Buckhanon triumphs' -- Big Issue 20050501 'Last year's must-read in the USA ! an interesting glimpse into young Black America and the realities of life within the US penal system' -- Sunday Times Travel Magazine 20050401 'UPSTATE packs a swift, head-clearing emotional punch. The language is urban, urgent, and possessing a poetry uniquely its own' -- Elle 20050401 'UPSTATE starts out strong and never lets go ... it moved me to tears' -- Chicago Tribune 20050401 'While the beauty of this novel is in the lyricism of the writing, the innovative format that Kalisha uses to tell the story is just as captivating.' -- New Nation, Andrea Enisuoh. 20050401 'A moving debut ... Kalisha Buckhanon, by structuring her story in the epistolatory form, gives it an intimacy and urgency that the best tales always have.' -- Independent on Sunday 20050630 'A heartbreaker of a love story' -- New York Daily News 20050630 'A heartbreaker of a love story' -- People 20050630 'A heartbreaker of a love story' -- Big Issue 20050630 'A heartbreaker of a love story' -- Chiacago Tribune 20050630 'Heartbreaking and true ... I'd read it again just for the power of the language' -- Dorothy Allison, author of 'Bastard Out of Carolin 20050630 'Wild and beautiful ... told using the epistolary form with brilliant skill not seen since 'The Color Purple' -- Sapphire, author of 'Push' 20050630 'The young black urban experience is stunningly captured in this spare, moving first novel' -- Toronto Sun 20050314

Harlem, 1985. Antonio has been seeing Natasha for a while now. Their relationship is full of the drama, the passion and the intensity of every first love affair. But their story is different. For Antonio is on trial for the murder of his father. This is Natasha and Antonio's story, one struggling to cope with life in jail, the other with life outside. Extraordinarily vivid and honest, their letters to each other narrate the rollercoaster ride of first love with stunning insight. Reminiscent of THE COLOR PURPLE, UPSTATE is a brilliantly compelling debut novel.