National Book Critics Circle Award Winner. A deep and compassionate novel about a young man who returns to 1940's Cajun country to visit a Black youth on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting. A majestic, moving novel. . . an instant classic, a book that will be read, discussed and taught beyond the rest of our lives" (Chicago Tribune), from the critically acclaimed author of A Gathering of Old Men and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. "A Lesson Before Dying reconfirms Ernest J. Gaines's position as an important American writer. " Boston Globe "Enormously moving. . . . Gaines unerringly evokes the place and time about which he writes. " Los Angeles TimesA quietly moving novel that takes us back to a place we've been before to impart a lesson for living. San Francisco Chronicle.