Riots I Have Known

"[A] gritty, bracing debut novel...a satirical look at mass incarceration and the liberating power of the written word."—Esquire "Dazzling...Supremely mischievous and sublimely written, this is a stellar work."—Publishers Weekly (starred review) An electric, uproarious, and biting debut novel set during a prison riot, told in a high-comic pitch in the tradition of Paul Beatty's The Sellout and Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger. An unnamed Sri Lankan inmate has barricaded himself inside a prison computer lab in Dutchess County, New York. A riot rages outside, incited by a poem published in The Holding Pen, the house literary journal. This, our narrator's final Editor's Letter, is his confession. An official accounting of events, as they happened. As he awaits imminent and violent interruption, he takes us on a roller coaster ride of plot and language, determined to share his life...