Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an American City

A kaleidoscopic account of five days in the life of a city on the edge, told through seven characters on the frontlines of the uprising that overtook Baltimore and riveted the world, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Other Wes Moore. When Freddie Gray was arrested for possessing an "illegal knife" in April 2015, he was, by eyewitness accounts that video evidence later confirmed, treated "roughly" as police loaded him into a vehicle. By the end of his trip in the police van, Gray was in a coma he would never recover from. In the wake of a long history of police abuse in Baltimore, this killing felt like a final straw--it led to a week of protests and then five days described alternately as a riot or an uprising that set the entire city on edge, and caught the nation's attention. Wes Moore is one of Baltimore's most famous sons--a Rhodes Scholar, bestselling author, decorated combat veteran, White House fellow, and current President of the Robin Hood Foundation. While attending Gray's funeral, he saw every strata of the city come together- grieving mothers; members of the city's wealthy elite; activists; and the long-suffering citizens of Baltimore--all looking to comfort each other, but also looking for answers. Knowing that when they left the church, these factions would spread out to their own corners, but that the answers they were all looking for could only be found in the city as a whole, Moore--along with Pulitzer-winning coauthor Erica Green--tells the story of the Baltimore uprising. Through both his own observations, and through the eyes of other Baltimoreans- Partee, a conflicted black captain of the Baltimore Police Department; Jenny, a young white public defender who's drawn into the violent center of the uprising herself; Tawanda, a young black woman who'd spent a lonely year protesting the killing of her own brother by police; and John DeAngelo, scion of the city's most powerful family and owner of the Baltimore Orioles, who has to make choices of conscience he'd never before confronted. Each shifting point of view contributes to an engrossing, cacophonous account of one of the most consequential moments in our recent history--but also an essential cri de coeur about the deeper causes of the violence and the small seeds of hope planted in its aftermath.

About the Author :
Wes Moore is the president of the Robin Hood Foundation, one of the largest antipoverty organizations in the country. His first book, The Other Wes Moore, was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller; his second book, The Work, was also a bestseller and featured in Oprah's SuperSoul Sunday. Wes appears regularly as a commentator on NBC News. He lives in his hometown of Baltimore with his wife and two children. Erica Green is a rising star in journalism, part of the Pulitzer-winning team that covered the Baltimore protests for the Baltimore Sun. She currently covers education for The New York Times, where she's written a number of page-one stories.

Review :
“Moore captures the fear, anger, uncertainty, and hope of locals who saw their city fall apart and struggle to come back together. . . . Moore provides important context in the history of Baltimore’s racial and income inequality and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement. Readers will be enthralled by this propulsive account.”—Publishers Weekly Previous praise for Wes Moore The Other Wes Moore “A moving book . . . a call to arms.”—Chicago Tribune “Startling and revelatory . . . a rocketing real-life narrative.”—The Baltimore Sun   “[A] compassionate memoir—a story that explores how some survive and others sink in urban battlegrounds.”—People “Moore vividly and powerfully describes not just the culture of the streets but how it feels to be a boy growing up in a world where violence makes you a man.”—O: The Oprah Magazine   “Inspiring . . . a story for our times.”—Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here The Work “Powerful and moving . . . I’ve known and deeply admired Wes for a long time. Reading The Work, I better understand why.”—Chelsea Clinton “Wes Moore proves once again that he is one of the most effective storytellers and leaders of his generation.”—Arianna Huffington