Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx

Selected as One of the Best Books of the 21st Century by The New York Times

Set amid the havoc of the War on Drugs, this New York Times bestseller is an "astonishingly intimate" (New York magazine) chronicle of one family's triumphs and trials in the South Bronx of the 1990s.

"Unmatched in depth and power and grace. A profound, achingly beautiful work of narrative nonfiction...The standard-bearer of embedded reportage." --Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted

In her classic bestseller, journalist Adrian Nicole LeBlanc immerses readers in the world of one family with roots in the Bronx, New York. In 1989, LeBlanc approached Jessica, a young mother whose encounter with the carceral state is about to forever change the direction of her life. This meeting redirected LeBlanc's reporting, taking her past the perennial stories of crime and violence into the community of women and children who bear the brunt of the insidious violence of poverty. Her book bears witness to the teetering highs and devastating lows in the daily lives of Jessica, her family, and her expanding circle of friends. Set at the height of the War on Drugs, Random Family is a love story--an ode to the families that form us and the families we create for ourselves.

Charting the tumultuous struggle of hope against deprivation over three generations, LeBlanc slips behind the statistics and comes back with a riveting, haunting, and distinctly American true story.

Author: Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: 02/10/2004
Pages: 432
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.48w x 1.07d
ISBN: 9780743254434
Award: Street Literature Book Award Medal (Slbam) - Honorable Mention

Review Citation(s):
Women's Review of Books 01/01/2004 pg. 7
New York Times 02/08/2004 pg. 28
Newsweek 07/13/2009 pg. 45

About the Author
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc is the daughter of a union organizer and a bookkeeper. She is a contributor to The New York Times Magazine and other publications. She has also been the recipient of numerous awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship, a Bunting Fellowship from Radcliffe, and a MacDowell Colony residency. She lives in Manhattan.