A Lesson Before Dying
Lionel Mark Smith, Roger Guenveur Smith, Ernest J. Gaines, Hachette Audio
Audiobook
(Hachette Audio, Dec. 16, 1999)
Jefferson is an innocent and unwitting party to a deadly liquor store shoot-out in the 1940s. As the only survivor, he is tried and convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, a university-trained teacher at the plantation school, is persuaded to visit Jefferson in his cell. Wiggins is torn between staying in his native Cajun community or moving on. The 2 men gradually form a bond as they jointly discover the simple heroism of resisting - and denying - the expected.