The Kid [Paperback]

Painstakingly beautiful (Scotland on Sunday )

Sapphire is not your average writer. Brave, bold and uncompromising . . . The novel keeps you on tenterhooks (Bernardine Evaristo Observer )

Harrowing . . . Masterfully narrated . . . Powerful (Diva )

Stunning . . . Exhilarating (Independent )

Prepare to be harrowed; I was sobbing by the end of the first chapter . . . [Sapphire] writes with a burning anger that gives this novel an explosive power (The Times )

A consummate work of art, style and brains, shining at times with the possibility for hope and joy . . . More accomplished than [Push] and a thousand times more frightening (List )

Sapphire never flinches from the truth -- Bidisha Guardian Captures the gruelling heartbreak of trying to love anything when the world doesn't love you enough New York Herald Tribune Prepare to be harrowed; I was sobbing by the end of the first chapter ... [Sapphire] writes with a burning anger that gives this novel an explosive power The Times Sapphire is not your average writer. Brave, bold and uncompromising ... The breathtaking velocity and visceral power of her prose soars off the page ... The novel keeps you on tenterhooks -- Bernardine Evaristo Observer Explicit and damning in its depiction of a forgotten underclass ... Stunning ... Exhilarating Independent A dark and punishing tale Big Issue The Kid is deeply moving Essence Harrowing ... Masterfully narrated ... Powerful Diva Abdul's story is frighteningly realistic ... The novel itself is a consummate work of art, style and brains, shining at times with the possibility for hope and joy ... More accomplished than [Push] and a thousand times more frightening The List Painstakingly beautiful Scotland on Sunday --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Fifteen years after the publication of Push, Sapphire gives voice to Abdul Jones, the son of her unforgettable heroine, Precious.

The Kid is an electrifying story of body and spirit, rooted in the hungers of flesh and of the soul, bringing us deep into the interior life of Abdul. We meet him at age nine, on the day of his mother's funeral. Left alone to navigate in a world where love and hate sometimes hideously masquerade, forced to confront unspeakable violence, his history and the dark corners of his own heart, Abdul claws his way toward adulthood and toward an identity he can stand behind.

In a generational story that moves with the speed of thought from a Mississippi dirt farm to Harlem in its heyday; from a troubled Catholic orphanage to downtown artist's lofts, The Kid tells of a twenty-first-century young man's fight to find a way toward the future. A testament to the ferocity of the human spirit, the deep nourishing power of love, and of art, The Kid becomes a young man about to take flight. Intimate, terrifying and deeply alive, Abdul's journey bears witness to an artist's birth by fire.

Sapphire is the author of two collections of poetry and the bestselling novel Push. The film adaption of her novel, Precious (2009), received the Academy Award for Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress, in addition to the Grand Jury Prize and Audience awards in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance. In 2009 she was a recipient of a United States Artist Fellowship. She lives in New York City.