
Solitary
Albert Woodfox with Leslie George
#1103 of 3,809 books · #413 in Biography & Memoir
Shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (2020) and the National Book Award for Nonfiction (2019).
Solitary is the unforgettable life story of a man who served more than four decades in solitary confinement—in a 6-foot by 9-foot cell, twenty-three hours a day, in Louisiana's notorious Angola prison—all for a crime he did not commit. That Albert Woodfox survived at all was a feat of extraordinary endurance. That he emerged whole from his odyssey within America's prison and judicial systems is a triumph of the human spirit. While behind bars in his early twenties, Albert was inspired to join the Black Panther Party because of its social commitment and code of living. He was serving a fifty-year sentence in Angola for armed robbery when, on April 17, 1972, a white guard was killed. Albert and another member of the Panthers were accused of the crime and immediately put in solitary confinement. Without a shred of evidence against them, their trial was a sham of justice. Decades passed before Albert was finally released in February 2016. Sustained by the solidarity of two fellow Panthers, Albert turned his anger into activism and resistance. The Angola 3, as they became known, resolved never to be broken by the corruption that effectively held them for decades as political prisoners. Solitary is a clarion call to reform the inhumanity of solitary confinement in the United States and around the world.
- Publisher
- Grove Press
- ISBN-13
- 9780802146908
- Genre
- Topics
Awards
- Pulitzer Prize for General NonfictionShortlistedMajor(2020)
- National Book Award for NonfictionShortlistedMajor(2019)
Other awarded books from Albert Woodfox with Leslie George
Albert Woodfox with Leslie George has no other awarded or shortlisted books yet.
If you liked Solitary, you could also like these

The Briar Patch: The People of the State of New York versus Lumumba Shakur, et al.
Murray Kempton
1 win · 12 score

The Midnight Special: The Secret Prison History of American Music
Colin Asher
0 wins · 4 score

Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy
Heather Ann. Thompson
2 wins · 28 score

Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett
Jennifer Gonnerman
0 wins · 4 score

Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, a Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice
Barbara Bradley Hagerty
0 wins · 2 score

Manifest Injustice: The True Story of a Convicted Murderer and the Lawyers Who Fought for His Freedom
Barry Siegel
0 wins · 3 score

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
Manning Marable
1 win · 33 score

American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment
Shane Bauer
1 win · 8 score

Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number
Jacobo Timerman
1 win · 8 score

Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire
Robert Perkinson
1 win · 8 score

The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Malcolm X and Alex Haley
1 win · 5 score

Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America
James Forman Jr.
1 win · 15 score

Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story
Timothy Tyson
0 wins · 4 score

Black Like Me
John Howard Griffin
1 win · 5 score

Huna: A Memoir of Revolution, Prison, and Becoming
Abdelrahman ElGendy
0 wins · 4 score
Similar Topics

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
Bryan Stevenson
1 win · 18 score
Criminal justice reform
The Briar Patch: The People of the State of New York versus Lumumba Shakur, et al.
Murray Kempton
1 win · 12 score
Black Panther Party
Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration
Emily Bazelon
1 win · 10 score
Criminal justice reform
American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment
Shane Bauer
1 win · 8 score
Criminal justice reform
Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration
Reuben Jonathan Miller
0 wins · 6 score
Criminal justice reform
Kind and Usual Punishment: The Prison Business
Jessica Mitford
0 wins · 4 score
Criminal justice reform
A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom
Brittany K. Barnett
0 wins · 3 score
Criminal justice reform
Waiting for an Echo: The Madness of American Incarceration
Christine Montross
0 wins · 3 score
Criminal justice reform
Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, a Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice
Barbara Bradley Hagerty
0 wins · 2 score
Criminal justice reform