Illegal - Softcover

Hill, Lawrence

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1443453137 ISBN 13: 9781443453134

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 2016

Synopsis

From the beloved author of the national bestseller The Book of Negroes comes “a book for our times” (Maclean’s) about family, identity and the strength of the human spirit

Keita Ali is on the run. Like every boy on the mountainous island of Zantoroland, running is all Keita’s ever wanted to do. In one of the poorest nations in the world, running means respect. Running means riches—until Keita is targeted for his father’s outspoken political views and discovers he must run for his family’s survival.

He signs on with notorious marathon agent Anton Hamm, but when Keita fails to place among the top finishers in his first race, he escapes into Freedom State—a wealthy island nation that has elected a government bent on deporting the refugees living within its borders in the community of AfricTown. Keita can stay safe only if he keeps moving and eludes Hamm and the officials who would deport him to his own country, where he would face almost certain death.

This is the new underground: a place where tens of thousands of people deemed to be “illegal” live below the radar of the police and government officials. Keita’s very existence in Freedom State is illegal. As he trains in secret, eluding capture, the stakes keep getting higher. Soon, he is running not only for his life, but for his sister’s life, too.

Fast moving and compelling, The Illegal casts a satirical eye on people who have turned their backs on undocumented refugees struggling to survive in a nation that does not want them. Hill’s depiction of life on the borderlands of society urges us to consider the plight of the unseen and the forgotten who live among us.

About this title

About the Author

LAWRENCE HILL is the award-winning and internationally bestselling author of The Book of Negroes, which was made into a six-part TV mini-series, and The Illegal, which won CBC’s Canada Reads and was a #1 national bestseller. His previous novels Some Great Thing and Any Known Blood also became national bestsellers. Hill’s non-fiction work includes Blood: The Stuff of Life, the subject of his 2013 Massey Lectures, and Black Berry, Sweet Juice, a memoir about growing up black and white in Canada. Lawrence Hill has volunteered with Crossroads International, the Black Loyalist Heritage Society, Book Clubs for Inmates and the Ontario Black History Society. A professor of creative writing at the University of Guelph, Lawrence Hill lives with his family in Hamilton, Ontario, and Woody Point, Newfoundland. 

From the Back Cover

#1 National Bestseller

Winner of CBC Canada Reads

A CBC, Globe and Mail and National Post Best Book of the Year

Keita Ali is on the run. Like every boy in Zantoroland, running is all Keita’s ever wanted to do. In one of the poorest nations in the world, running means respect and riches. But when Keita is targeted for his father’s outspoken political views, he must run for his very survival. Escaping into the neighbouring Freedom State, Keita can stay safe only if he keeps moving and eludes the police and government officials who would deport him to Zantoroland, where he would face almost certain death.

Fast moving and compelling, The Illegal casts a satirical eye on people who have turned their backs on undocumented refugees struggling to survive in a nation that does not want them. Hill’s depiction of life on the borderlands of society urges us to consider the plight of the unseen and the forgotten who live among us.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1443453137
• ISBN 13: 9781443453134
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 448