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A Lesson Before Dying
This National Book Critics Circle Award winner follows the real-life story of the friendship formed between a disheartened schoolteacher and a Black man falsely accused of murder in Jim Crow era Louisiana. Based on Ernest J.
About A Lesson Before Dying
This National Book Critics Circle Award winner follows the real-life story of the friendship formed between a disheartened schoolteacher and a Black man falsely accused of murder in Jim Crow era Louisiana. Based on Ernest J. Gaines' National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novel, A Lesson Before Dying is set in a small Louisiana Cajun community in the late 1940s. Jefferson, a young illiterate black man, is falsely convicted of murder and is sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, the plantation schoolteacher, agrees to talk with the condemned man. The disheartened Wiggins had once harbored dreams of escaping from his impoverished youth, yet he returned to his hometown after university, to teach children whose lives seemed as unpromising as Jefferson's. The two men forge a bond as they come to understand what it means to resist and defy one's fate.
Where to listen & where it's available
A Lesson Before Dying is available as an audiobook on Spotify and Apple Books. You can also check Audible and Amazon for other editions.
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A Lesson Before Dying — frequently asked
- Is A Lesson Before Dying on Spotify?
- Yes — we've confirmed A Lesson Before Dying as an audiobook on Spotify. Open it from the links on this page.
- Is A Lesson Before Dying on Apple Books?
- Yes — A Lesson Before Dying is available as an audiobook on Apple Books.
- Who wrote A Lesson Before Dying?
- A Lesson Before Dying is by Ernest J. Gaines.
- Where can I buy the A Lesson Before Dying audiobook?
- Audible and Amazon both carry audiobooks; use the retailer links on this page to go straight to A Lesson Before Dying. For print copies, compare Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million.
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