There really aren't enough adjectives to describe this book and the absolute punch it packs: heartbreaking, inspiring, tragic, gut-wrenching, enraging, insightful, thought-provoking... I could go on and on.

It is inspiring to know that there are people out there like Bryan Stevenson, who see how power and privilege are abused and take the time to fight it wherever possible. His decisions, and the grace he offers to those condemned, give me hope. The stories of those he spends the book fighting for are far less hopeful; they are, in every instance, outrageous and in some ways really terrifying too. In the case of Walter McMillian, it is shocking and scary that so many people could conspire to just ignore evidence and testimony to send a man TO DEATH. There is a gravity about that that becomes unshakeable as you progress through the novel. As Walter himself remarks, how could someone (Ralph Myers in his case) make up a condemning story about someone he's never even met?

It bleeds into the larger question that Stevenson is posing in this book, of why we are so hell-bent on punishing people so severely. What do we gain?

The subject of mass incarceration is not one I was previously at all familiar with, and it's pretty easy to form a position about the death penalty or prison sentences in the abstract. But many of us are fortunate to never have to actually see and live the realities that those positions lead to, which by Stevenson's (and others') account can be inhumane and troubling. This book really makes you think on it, think about the *why* behind capital punishment. The most poignant question of the book, to me, came from Bryan: "...the death penalty is not about whether people deserve to die for the crimes they commit. The real question of capital punishment in this country is, Do we deserve to kill?" May we all read this account and really understand what we're doing to our fellow people.