A Thousand Ways to Die - by Trymaine Lee (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A deeply personal exploration of the generational impact of guns on the Black experience in America

A few years ago, Trymaine Lee, though fit and only 38, nearly died of a heart attack. When his then five-year-old daughter, Nola, asked her daddy why, he realized that to answer her honestly, he had to confront what almost killed him--the weight of being a Black man in America; of bearing witness, as a journalist, to relentless Black death; and of a family history scarred by enslavement, lynching, the Great Migration, the also insidious racism of the North, and gun violence that stole the lives of two great-uncles, a grandfather, a stepbrother, and two cousins.

In this powerful narrative, Lee weaves together three strands: the long and bloody history of African Americans and guns; his work as a chronicler of gun violence, tallying the costs and riches generated by both the legal and illegal gun industries; and his own life story. With unflinching honesty he takes readers on a journey, from almost being caught up in gun violence as a young man, to tracing the legacy of the Middle Passage in Ghana through his ancestors' footsteps, to confronting the challenges of representing his people in an overwhelmingly white and often hostile media world, and most importantly, to celebrating the enduring strength of his family and community.

In A Thousand Ways to Die, Lee answers Nola and all who seek a more just America. He shares the hard truths and complexities of the Black experience, but he also celebrates the beauty and resilience that is Nola's legacy.

Review Quotes

A Thousand Ways to Die is a trenchant examination of how the personal intersects with the political, of the too-often high tolls of living Black in America. Trymaine's extraordinary journey is also a vital lesson on the healing power of sharing whole truths with our posterity. -Mitchell S. Jackson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

"A poetic, political, and powerful work--purposefully written to resonate with both today and the future." --Shaka Senghor, bestselling author of Writing My Wrongs, Letters to the Sons of Society and How to be Free

A Thousand Ways to Die is a historical and literary gift. In juxtaposing his family history and personal trauma with the bloody and painful history of gun violence in America, Trymaine Lee has crafted a brilliant narrative of generational struggle, hope, and resilience. This riveting blend of memoir, reportage, and history reveals how, for Black families, the heartbreak that accompanies premature death can engender healing only if we honor our stories and, in so doing, help to change the world." --Peniel Joseph, LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Department of History, the University of Texas at Austin

"What more can be said about gun violence in the United States? In "A Thousand Ways to Die," Trymaine Lee unearths an untold story about the ways the weapon has altered the geography, physiology and psychology of African Americans in a work that is deep, revelatory and readable. " --Robert Samuels, co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "His Name is George Floyd"

"We all know Trymaine Lee as a prescient and powerful storyteller of Black life. With this book, he promises to bring his truth-telling which captivates us on screen to even deeper elaboration and insight on the page." --Imani Perry, author of South to America, National Book Award Award winner, Henry A. Morss, Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University.

"It takes a special kind of fearlessness to stare deeply into the dark corners of our world and our history and candidly relay what you've found there. Trymaine Lee possesses it in abundance. There's no one better equipped to tell the story he chronicles here -- and no one I trust more to get it right." --Jelani Cobb, Dean, Columbia Journalism School

About the Author

Trymaine Lee is a Pulitzer Prize and Emmy award winning journalist and correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC. He's the host of the "Into America" podcast where he covers the intersection of Blackness, power, and politics. A contributing author to the "1619 Project", he has reported for The New York Times, the Huffington Post, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune. A Thousand Ways to Die is his first book.