Ghost of the Innocent Man by Benjamin Rachlin

Hansen artfully conveys her own initial lack of awareness of the world, and her realization that she had internalized American exceptionalism into her own identity, and she introduces readers to people and places in Turkey, Afghanistan, Greece, Egypt, Iraq, and Iran, who add valuable perspective. She arrived in Turkey in 2007 on a fellowship, aware of the cliché that Istanbul was a bridge between east and west, and of its long history as a model of progress and modernity. “This is a book about an American living abroad in the era of American decline,” writes New York Times Magazine contributing writer Hansen in her fascinating new exploration of our nation’s place in the world. Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World by Suzy Hansen By twinning Grimes’ story with the establishment of North Carolina’s Innocence Inquiry Commission, which was responsible for overturning the conviction, Rachlin enlarges the book’s scope, making it not merely a chronicle of a serious miscarriage of justice, but a broader indictment of a flawed system, and the prison industrial complex, that made it possible.ģ. Willie Grimes maintained his innocence in his 1988 trial, but was convicted on flimsy evidence and served over 20 years behind bars. In this compelling tale of crime and punishment (of the wrong person), Rachlin explores a horrible case of wrongful conviction and ultimate exoneration. Ghost of the Innocent Man: A True Story of Trial and Redemption by Benjamin Rachlin (Little, Brown) White,” Handy writes his afterword, “was correct about Charlotte’s Web being an ‘appreciative’ book – leave it to the coauthor of The Elements of Style to find such a lovely and perfect adjective – and I hope to have written one as well.”Ģ. Handy is empathic but not sentimental, and this beautifully written and designed book never lacks for fresh insights. Milne, Beatrix Potter, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Mildred D. Handy, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, proceeds chronologically through childhood, beginning with picture books, and on through A. “ Curious George and The Little Engine That Could have their moments but Goodnight Moon is a transcendent masterpiece,” writes Handy in his paean to children’s books. Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult by Bruce Handy (Simon & Schuster)

Ghost of the Innocent Man by Benjamin Rachlin