Spiegel & Grau is pushing up the publication date of Atlantic correspondent Ta-Nehisi Coates’ new book, Between the World and Me, from September 8 to July 14 (read our starred review of the book here).
While the publisher didn't directly link the updated schedule to the shooting in Charleston, S.C., Theresa Zoro, senior v-p, director of publicity and communications at Random House, confirmed that the move was due to a "combination of solid advance reviews and issues brought up by recent events."
In the book, written as a letter to his 15-year-old son, Coates confronts the concept of race, the history of racial violence in the U.S., and, per the publisher, what it is like "to inhabit a black body in America."
The publisher pointed to the events in Charleston, as well as Ferguson and Baltimore, as ones that "have become synonymous with a movement that is demanding a fresh confrontation with this country’s history and ideals." The statement continues, "That confrontation is ultimately about the status of the black body: exploited to create the country’s foundational wealth, violently segregated to unite a nation after a civil war, and, today, still disproportionately threatened, locked up, and killed in our streets."
Advance praise includes that from Toni Morrison, who said, “I’ve been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates. The language of Between the World and Me, like Coates' journey, is visceral, eloquent and beautifully redemptive." She added that the book's "examination of the hazards and hopes of black male life is as profound as it is revelatory."
