The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two FatesNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the governor of Maryland, the “compassionate” (People), “startling” (Baltimore Sun), “moving” (Chicago Tribune) true story of two kids with the same name from the city: One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison. Selected by Stephen Curry as his “Underrated” Book Club Pick with Literati The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his. In December 2000, the Baltimore Sun ran a small piece about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. The same paper also ran a series of articles about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One was named Wes Moore. Wes just couldn’t shake off the unsettling coincidence, or the inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting him: Who are you? How did this happen? That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that have lasted for several years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, Wes discovered that the other Wes had had a life not unlike his own: Both had had difficult childhoods, both were fatherless; they’d hung out on similar corners with similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies. Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world. |
Contents
5 | |
In Search of Home | 26 |
Foreign Ground | 46 |
Marking Territory | 69 |
Lost | 85 |
Hunted | 108 |
The Land That God Forgot | 129 |
Surrounded | 146 |
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African African-American apartheid asked basketball began boys Bronx brother cadet campus Cherry Hill Colin Powell cops corner Dalio door drug entered eyes face father felt finally friends front grandparents hands head heard high school hip-hop Job Corps Justin Kanye West kids knew lives looked Mary Mayor Schmoke mentoring military school Moore mother moved Murphy Homes National neighborhood never Nikki officer ORGANIZATION SERVICES PROVIDED Phone play police PROVIDED TARGETING YOUTH pulled quickly realized Rhodes Scholarship Riverdale SCOPE CONTACT INFORMATION Sergeant SERVICES PROVIDED TARGETING Shani Shea smile South Africa stairs stared started stood stop story streets Suite talk TARGETING YOUTH GEOGRAPHY TARGETING YOUTH SCOPE Tavis Smiley told Toll Free Tony trying turned Valley Forge walked wanted Washington watching Wes's Woody Xhosa yelled young