Audiobook13 hours
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League
Written by Jeff Hobbs
Narrated by George Newbern
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
*Now a major motion picture—Rob Peace—starring Jay Will, Mary J. Blige, and Chiwetel Ejiofor*
*Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, and more* The New York Times bestselling account of a young African-American man who escaped Newark, NJ, to attend Yale, but still faced the dangers of the streets when he returned is, “nuanced and shattering” (People) and “mesmeric” (The New York Times Book Review).
When author Jeff Hobbs arrived at Yale University, he became fast friends with the man who would be his college roommate for four years, Robert Peace. Robert’s life was rough from the beginning in the crime-ridden streets of Newark in the 1980s, with his father in jail and his mother earning less than $15,000 a year. But Robert was a brilliant student, and it was supposed to get easier when he was accepted to Yale, where he studied molecular biochemistry and biophysics. But it didn’t get easier. Robert carried with him the difficult dual nature of his existence, trying to fit in at Yale, and at home on breaks.
A compelling and honest portrait of Robert’s relationships—with his struggling mother, with his incarcerated father, with his teachers and friends—The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace encompasses the most enduring conflicts in America: race, class, drugs, community, imprisonment, education, family, friendship, and love. It’s about the collision of two fiercely insular worlds—the ivy-covered campus of Yale University and the slums of Newark, New Jersey, and the difficulty of going from one to the other and then back again. It’s about trying to live a decent life in America. But most all this “fresh, compelling” (The Washington Post) story is about the tragic life of one singular brilliant young man. His end, a violent one, is heartbreaking and powerful and “a haunting American tragedy for our times” (Entertainment Weekly).
*Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, and more* The New York Times bestselling account of a young African-American man who escaped Newark, NJ, to attend Yale, but still faced the dangers of the streets when he returned is, “nuanced and shattering” (People) and “mesmeric” (The New York Times Book Review).
When author Jeff Hobbs arrived at Yale University, he became fast friends with the man who would be his college roommate for four years, Robert Peace. Robert’s life was rough from the beginning in the crime-ridden streets of Newark in the 1980s, with his father in jail and his mother earning less than $15,000 a year. But Robert was a brilliant student, and it was supposed to get easier when he was accepted to Yale, where he studied molecular biochemistry and biophysics. But it didn’t get easier. Robert carried with him the difficult dual nature of his existence, trying to fit in at Yale, and at home on breaks.
A compelling and honest portrait of Robert’s relationships—with his struggling mother, with his incarcerated father, with his teachers and friends—The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace encompasses the most enduring conflicts in America: race, class, drugs, community, imprisonment, education, family, friendship, and love. It’s about the collision of two fiercely insular worlds—the ivy-covered campus of Yale University and the slums of Newark, New Jersey, and the difficulty of going from one to the other and then back again. It’s about trying to live a decent life in America. But most all this “fresh, compelling” (The Washington Post) story is about the tragic life of one singular brilliant young man. His end, a violent one, is heartbreaking and powerful and “a haunting American tragedy for our times” (Entertainment Weekly).
Author
Jeff Hobbs
Jeff Hobbs is the author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was made into the 2024 film Rob Peace. He is also the author of Show Them You’re Good and The Tourists. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.
More audiobooks from Jeff Hobbs
Children of the State: Stories of Survival and Hope in the Juvenile Justice System Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Show Them You're Good: A Portrait of Boys in the City of Angels the Year Before College Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace
Related audiobooks
Greyboy: Finding Blackness in a White World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Vanishing Country: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/512 Years a Slave Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Fish: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Love Prison Made and Unmade: My Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Never Far from Home: My Journey from Brooklyn to Hip Hop, Microsoft, and the Law Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Heavy: An American Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5That Mean Old Yesterday Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fire Shut Up In My Bones: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Speak for Ourselves: A Word from Forgotten Black America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Buses Are a Comin': Memoir of a Freedom Rider Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Standing Our Ground: The Triumph of Faith Over Gun Violence: A Mother's Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In Our Mad and Furious City: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKnow Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America's Black Cities Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Movement Made Us: A Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Aftershocks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Compton Cowboys: The New Generation of Cowboys in America's Urban Heartland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How We Fight For Our Lives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America Made Me a Black Man: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Free Cyntoia: My Search for Redemption in the American Prison System Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Real American: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bodies Keep Coming: Dispatches from a Black Trauma Surgeon on Racism, Violence, and How We Heal Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Cultural, Ethnic & Regional Biographies For You
Wannabe: Reckonings with the Pop Culture That Shapes Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dressmakers of Auschwitz: The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Creep: Accusations and Confessions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino” Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You're That Bitch: & Other Cute Lessons About Being Unapologetically Yourself Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Got Anything Stronger?: Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making a Scene Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Exotic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories We Tell: Every Piece of Your Story Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (Oprah's Book Club Summer 2018 Selection) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Say Babylon: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Waking Up White: and Finding Myself in the Story of Race Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Living Remedy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Survival of the Thickest: Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just as I Am: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Adversity for Sale: Ya Gotta Believe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Marriage Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unprotected: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Heavy: An American Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story that Awakened America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace
Rating: 4.526315789473684 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
38 ratings0 reviews