Jamel Brinkley / A Lucky Man

Booksmith hosts the Bay Area launch for Jamel Brinkley and his debut book, A Lucky Man: Stories. Please join us in celebration!

In the nine expansive, searching stories of A Lucky Man, fathers and sons attempt to salvage relationships with friends and family members, and confront mistakes made in the past. An imaginative young boy from the Bronx goes swimming with his group from day camp at a backyard pool in the suburbs, and faces the effects of power and privilege in ways he can barely grasp. A teen intent on proving himself a man through the all-night revel of J’Ouvert can’t help but look out for his impressionable younger brother. And at a capoeira conference, two brothers grapple with how to tell the story of their family, caught in the dance of their painful, fractured history.

This stunning debut by Jamel Brinkley reflects the tenderness and vulnerability of black men and boys whose hopes sometimes betray them, especially in a world shaped by race, gender, and class—where luck may be the greatest fiction of all.

“This is the rare debut that introduces not a promising talent but a major writer, fully formed.” – Garth Greenwell

“An unmissable debut short story collection, Jamel Brinkley’s poignant A Lucky Man is revelatory in its crafting of prose and language. A wonderful read.” – The Root

“Spectacular. . . . Quite simply stunning. . . . [Jamel Brinkley] shines a light on difficult truths.” – Nylon

Jamel Brinkley was raised in the Bronx and Brooklyn, New York. He is a graduate of Columbia University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His work has received fellowships from Kimbilio Fiction and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. Beginning this fall, he will be a 2018-2020 Wallace Stegner Fellow in Fiction at Stanford University.

RSVP is appreciated, but not required. If you cannot attend the event but would like to request a signed copy of A Lucky Man, order below and put your request in the comments field.