The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace

"Every year there is one nonfiction book that makes me shake up my steady diet of fiction. In 2014, it was this detailed and moving portrait of a most complicated young man, who was found murdered in a basement near Newark, N.J. Robert Peace grew up poor outside Newark. He sold marijuana, but he was also a brilliant Yale University graduate who majored in molecular biophysics and biochemistry. Peace’s friend and Yale roommate of four years, writer Jeff Hobbs, makes a complete investigation — from birth to death — of all that made up Peace’s life. Reading the book, you become witness to tremendous potential lost, and you’ll think about race, education and poverty in ways that perhaps you hadn’t before. It can make for excruciating reading at times — excruciating, yet essential."

"I wept throughout. It is the true story of the life (and untimely death) of an amazing young black man as told by his white Yale roommate and best friend."