Upstate [Audiobook] [Audio CD]

'Wow! Just wow! Very occasionally you come across a book that is not just something to while away a couple of hours, but something you know is beyond entertainment. It's important, gut-wrenching and possibly the best insight into the mentality of an American teenage culture ... a book that's impossible to forget' (Daily Record 20050401)

‘Raw, tender and emotional, every word of this accomplished debut rings painfully and beautifully true’. (Sainsbury’s Magazine 20050630)

‘A raw account of divided love’. (B Magazine 20050630)

‘The street-smart language often crackles’. (Marie Claire 20050630)

'A touching tale ... Kalisha Buckhanon triumphs' (Big Issue 20050630)

‘Last year’s must-read in the USA … an interesting glimpse into young Black America and the realities of life within the US penal system’ (Sunday Times Travel Magazine 20050630)

'UPSTATE packs a swift, head-clearing emotional punch. The language is urban, urgent, and possessing a poetry uniquely its own' (Elle 20050630)

'UPSTATE starts out strong and never lets go ... it moved me to tears' (Chicago Tribune 20050630)

‘While the beauty of this novel is in the lyricism of the writing, the innovative format that Kalisha uses to tell the story is just as captivating.’ (New Nation, Andrea Enisuoh. 20050314)

‘A moving debut ... Kalisha Buckhanon, by structuring her story in the epistolatory form, gives it an intimacy and urgency that the best tales always have.’ (Independent on Sunday )

'A heartbreaker of a love story'

(New York Daily News )

'A heartbreaker of a love story'

(People )

'A heartbreaker of a love story'

(Big Issue )

'A heartbreaker of a love story'

(Chiacago Tribune )

'Heartbreaking and true ... I'd read it again just for the power of the language'

(Dorothy Allison, author of 'Bastard Out of Carolin )

'Wild and beautiful ... told using the epistolary form with brilliant skill not seen since 'The Color Purple'

(Sapphire, author of 'Push' )

'The young black urban experience is stunningly captured in this spare, moving first novel'

(Toronto Sun ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

'Heartbreaking and true ... I'd read it again just for the power of the language' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

‘A raw account of divided love’. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

‘The street-smart language often crackles’. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

‘Raw, tender and emotional, every word of this accomplished debut rings painfully and beautifully true’. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

'A touching tale ... Kalisha Buckhanon triumphs' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Harlem, 1985. Antonio has been seeing Natasha for a while now. Their relationship is full of the drama, the passion and the intensity of every first love affair. But their story is different. For Antonio is on trial for the murder of his father.

This is Natasha and Antonio's story, one struggling to cope with life in jail, the other with life outside. Extraordinarily vivid and honest, their letters to each other narrate the rollercoaster ride of first love with stunning insight. Reminiscent of THE COLOR PURPLE, UPSTATE is a brilliantly compelling debut novel. (20050501) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Kalisha Buckhanon was born in 1977. UPSTATE is her first novel. (20050501) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.