Critiques en avant-premièreSusan Nussbaum

Bellwether Award winner Susan Nussbaum’s powerful novel invites us into the lives of a group of typical teenagers—alienated, funny, yearning for autonomy—except that they live in an institution for juveniles with disabilities. This unfamiliar, isolated landscape is much the same as the world outside: friendships are forged, trust is built, love affairs are kindled, and rules are broken. But those who call it home have little or no control over their fate. Good Kings Bad Kings challenges our definitions of what it means to be disabled in a story told with remarkable authenticity and in voices that resound with humor and spirit.

This powerful and inspiring debut is the 2012 winner of Barbara Kingsolver s PEN/Bellwether Prize for fiction. Told in alternating perspectives by a varied and vocal cast of characters, Nussbaum s novel pulls back the curtain to reveal the complicated and funny and tough life inside the walls of an institution for juveniles with disabilities. From Yessenia Lopez, who dreams of her next boyfriend and of one day of living outside those walls, to Teddy, a resident who dresses up daily in a full suit and tie, to Mia, who guards a terrifying secret, to Joanne, the new data-entry clerk who suddenly finds herself worrying about each and every kid, Nussbaum has crafted a multifaceted portrait of a way of life hidden from most of us. In this isolated human warehouse on Chicago s South Side, friendships are forged, trust is built, and love affairs begin. And it s in their alliances that the residents ultimately find the strength to bond together, resist their mistreatment, and fight back.