A Lesson Before Dying

Ernest J. Gaines · 1993

fictionhistorical

Banned in 1 country

Ernest J. Gaines's 1993 novel, set in rural Louisiana in the 1940s, follows Grant Wiggins, a Black schoolteacher asked by his aunt to restore the dignity and humanity of Jefferson — a young man wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death. A white defence attorney had argued Jefferson was no more than a hog; the novel traces Grant's attempt to make Jefferson die as a man. Challenged in US schools for sexual content, violence, and profanity. Gaines won the National Book Critics Circle Award for it.