Endangered: A Novel

Publishers Weekly05/19/2014
Cush's engaging debut, set in the courtroom, employs an intriguing premise. In January 2009, Malik Williams is an African-American 15-year-old living in poor, rundown west Philadelphia, when the police wrongfully arrest him for the fatal shooting of Troy Barnes, a school friend and known drug dealer. Janae, a single mother raising Malik and working as a hospital cafeteria cashier, accepts the offer from the Center for the Protection of Human Rights—headed by the passionate veteran attorney Roger Whitford—to defend Malik. Roger presents Janae with an unusual, though not original, defense, arguing how "African-American boys ought to be deemed legally endangered" and views Malik's homicide case in a broader context as the catalyst to effect much-needed black male juvenile prison reform.