The Other Wes Moore
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Average rating5
15
Ratings1
Average rating5
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 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. In development as a feature film executive produced by Stephen Curry, who selected the book 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.
Reviews with the most likes.
I rarely finish a book in a single day, but I did that with this one. It's a compelling narrative about two men named Wes Moore. They're from similar backgrounds in Baltimore, but a combination of choices and circumstances took them in different directions. The author, Wes Moore, a Rhodes Scholar and White House Fellow was headed down the wrong path when his mother took drastic action. He then read a book by Colin Powell that showed him that stories can change peoples lives–and Powell's story changed his. The other Wes Moore, though, didn't change, and the author has the opportunity to interview him in prison, where he is serving a life sentence.
There is a lot to absorb here about poverty, education, drugs, and opportunity in America. This book, like Powell's, is potentially going to change lives.
