His Name Is George Floyd

Since we know George Floyd's death with tragic clarity, we must know Floyd's America - and life - with tragic clarity. His Name Is George Floyd is essential for our times.

Ibram X. Kendi, author of <i>How to Be an Antiracist</i>

A wondrous feat of vivid writing and deep reporting, from the way it leads the reader through George Floyd's final fateful day on earth to its masterly account of Floyd's hopes and frustrations in the larger context of race in America.

David Maraniss, author of <i>Barack Obama: The Story</i>

We have come to know George Floyd as a symbol but have known little of George Floyd the man. In a monumental work of reporting and storytelling, Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa reveal who George Floyd was in life, and the extent to which his death was the result not just of the callous choices of a single police officer but of four hundred years of societal decisions to devalue Black life.

Wesley Lowery, author of <i>They Can't Kill Us All: The Story of the Struggle for Black Lives</i>

A sobering, deeply intimate account of George Floyd's life and all that he had to carry and contend with as a Black man coming of age in America. In a remarkable feat of reporting, Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa help us come to know Floyd as a full, rich, complicated human being.

Alex Kotlowitz, author of <i>There Are No Children Here</i>

A much-needed portrait of the life, times, and martyrdom of George Floyd, a chronicle of the racial awakening sparked by his brutal and untimely death, and an essential work of history I hope everyone will read.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., author of <i>The Black Church </i>

A vivid, necessary portrait of a Black man in America, in all its nuance, tragedy, and fullness.

Abby Phillip, CNN anchor and senior political correspondent

This multifaceted and exceptionally informative account is both a moving testament to Floyd and a devastating indictment of America's racial inequities.

Publishers Weekly

Writing with cogency and compassion, the authors free Floyd from the realm of iconography, restoring his humanity . . . A brilliant biography, history book, and searing indictment.

Kirkus Reviews

A wrenching chronicle of one of the most devastating events of our time . . . vital and illuminating.

Booklist

An intimate, unvarnished and scrupulous account of his life...brilliantly revealing.

New York Times

An expertly researched and excellent biography, a necessary and enlightening read for all.

Atlantic

'In this age of misinformation, where the victims of police killings are made out to be the problem, this humanising of Floyd is necessary... Samuels and Olorunnipa's greatest triumph is placing Floyd's life in the context of white supremacy.'

Observer

Masterful, thorough and even-handed.

Associated Press

The definitive work on who Floyd was and what his murder triggered. Gripping, heartbreaking, revelatory.

Oprah Daily

Detailed, vivid and moving.

Washington Post

His Name is George Floyd takes more than 400 interviews with Floyd's siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, cellmates, lovers, roommates, coaches, neighbours and teachers, and weaves them into a complex, compelling and lyrical biography.

Sydney Morning Herald

A deeply reported biography... Vivid storytelling drawn from interviews with family and friends reveals how the clouds of poverty, addiction and racism that preside over America often loomed over and got the better of Floyd... A sobering and essential work.

New Statesman

Excellent, important... A novelist seeking to create a character whose life exemplifies the challenges facing African American males could scarcely find a better model than Floyd.

Times Literary Supplement

Deeply reported, expansive, and empathetic-gives readers a clearer understanding of a man who tried, against the steep odds of systemic racism, to lead a full, peaceful life in America.

Top Ten Non-fiction Books of the Year, Time Magazine