The Illegal - Softcover

Hill, Lawrence

3.78

12,115 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1554683858 ISBN 13: 9781554683857

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2017

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#1 national bestseller by the author of The Book of Negroes

Winner of the CBC’s Canada Reads

Longlisted for the 2017 International DUBLIN Literary Award

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

Winner of the CBC Canada Reads competition, Maclean’s calls The Illegal “a book for our times.” In the dark fictional world of Zantoroland, bestselling, award-winning author Lawrence Hill casts a satirical eye on some of the most pressing issues of our time: race, immigration, undocumented refugees, discrimination and how the unseen and forgotten must struggle to survive.

In one of the poorest nations in the world, running means respect and riches. But when Keita Ali is targeted for his father’s outspoken political views, he escapes into Freedom State—a wealthy island nation. 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 must keep moving in order to avoid deportation. 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.

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From the Back Cover:

The #1 National Bestselling novel about family, identity and belonging

Winner of CBC’s Canada Reads

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

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

He signs on with a notorious marathon agent, but when things turn sour Keita flees to Freedom State—a wealthy nation bent on deporting the tens of thousands of refugees living within its borders. Deportation would mean death, so Keita trains in secret, eluding capture, surfacing only occasionally to earn money in road races. And soon he is running not only for his own life, but for his sister’s life too.

Fast moving, suspenseful and compelling, The Illegal captures in Keita’s story one of the most pressing issues of our time. It 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 reveals the endurance of the human spirit and urges us to consider the plight of the unseen and the forgotten who live among us.

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. His previous novels, Some Great Thing and Any Known Blood, 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 volunteers with Crossroads International, the Black Loyalist Heritage Society and Project Bookmark Canada. He lives with his family in Hamilton, Ontario, and Woody Point, Newfoundland.

www.lawrencehill.com

www.facebook.com/lawrencehillauthor

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