From the acclaimed author of Satisfied with Nothin' comes a searing and unsparing story of the unlikely bond between an African-American father and the teenager who killed his son, a tale of violent self-destruction reclaimed by the inexhaustible power of love and forgiveness.

In A Life for a Life, Ernest Hill explores the volatile emotional terrain of a black youth's coming of age in rural Louisiana. When a local drug dealer threatens to kill D'Ray Reid's kid brother unless he comes up with $100 within an hour, D'Ray decides to hold up a convenience store in a nearby town....

With his lyrical storytelling and unerring ear for dialogue, Ernest Hill has been praised as "remarkable" (Robert Olen Butler) and "a skilled storyteller" ("The New York Times Book eview). In this latest novel, he portrays the emotionally-resonant story of a young man's struggle to pursue his dreams and find the woman who can share his life. It's year of firsts for Maurice Dupree. He's the first person in his family to go to college. and now he's well of his way to becoming the first African American attorney in his hometown of Brownsville, Louisiana, and its entire parish. His parents...

This is the story of Jamie Ray Griffin, a young black man who, by virtue of his talent on the football field, finds himself suddenly thrust into a white world full of privilege, temptation, and never-before-imagined possibility. Encouraged by the facade of acceptance from the white community, Jamie strives to succeed, but finds himself thwarted at every turn -- by whites and blacks alike.

Satisfied with Nothin' chronicles Jamie's development from a naive, unsophisticated teen to a hard-driving, cynical adult determined to succeed despite the opposition of whites, the complacency...