Who Gets to Be an ‘American’? These Artists Have an Idea or Two

In An American Summer, veteran journalist Alex Kotlowitz ties together vignettes of Chicagoans in the aftermath of violence and death within their predominantly black neighborhoods. The wrenching portraits center on themes of love and forgiveness. A mother of a slain man wants restorative justice for her son’s killer; a teen must grapple with witnessing his classmate bleed out; a young woman watches her childhood friend stuck in the revolving door of the criminal justice system.

We’ve read versions of these stories in the news—and seen them used to advocate for solutions to the systemic problems that plague cities. Kotlowitz’s work does this. But he confronts his readers with a challenge even before they open the book: Can you consider this “an American summer”?