Product Description

An instant New York Times bestseller named a best book of the year by The New York Times Book Review Amazon and Entertainment Weekly among others this celebrated account of a young African-American man who escaped Newark NJ to attend Yale but still faced the dangers of the streets when he returned is nuanced and shattering (People) and mesmeric (The New York Times Book Review).

When author Jeff Hobbs arrived at Yale University he became fast friends with the man who would be his college roommate for four years Robert Peace. Roberts life was rough from the beginning in the crime-ridden streets of Newark in the 1980s with his father in jail and his mother earning less than $15000 a year. But Robert was a brilliant student and it was supposed to get easier when he was accepted to Yale where he studied molecular biochemistry and biophysics. But it didnt get easier. Robert carried with him the difficult dual nature of his existence trying to fit in at Yale and at home on breaks.

A compelling and honest portrait of Robert??s relationships?with his struggling mother?? with his incarcerated father?? with his teachers and friends?The S" and Tragic Life of Robert Peace encompasses the most enduring conflicts in America: race?? class?? drugs?? community?? imprisonment?? education?? family?? friendship?? and love. It??s about the collision of two fiercely insular worlds?the ivy-covered campus of Yale University and the slums of Newark?? New Jersey?? and the difficulty of going from one to the other and then back again. It??s about trying to live a decent life in America. But most all this ??fresh?? compelling?? (The Washington Post) story is about the tragic life of one singular brilliant young man. His end?? a violent one?? is heartbreaking and powerful and ??a haunting American tragedy for our times?? (Entertainment Weekly).

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of the Month?? September 2014: To read The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace?? a meticulous and heartfelt account of a brilliant black student from the poverty-stricken streets of Newark?? is to see the best of th"and ultimately?? tragically?? lost. Peace??s mother endured great sacrifices to ensure that her gifted son would meet his full potential. His father?? until his arrest for murder when Rob was seven?? dedicated himself to helping his son learn and mature. Rob was a popular?? straight-A student who played on the water polo team (his mother scraped up enough money to send him to parochial school)?? and upon graduating he was rewarded with a scholarship to Yale. Although he continued to thrive academically in college?? growing up in the second largest concentration of African-Americans living under the poverty line created barriers that even one as gifted as Robert Peace could not fully surmount. This is a riveting and heartbreaking read?? as Rob Peace seems always to have been on the outside?the resented geek in the hood?? and the inner city black man in the Ivy League. ?Chris Schluep

This is a book you will not forget. It will stay with you haunt you. Strangely it may even inspire you. You may not realize how good it is until days or weeks after youve finished it. The truth may dawn on you when you notice that you keep talking about the book with friends or family or the person sitting next to you on the bus. Perhaps youll begin to think that the book was more than good truly great when you find yourself thinking about Robert Peace as youre drifting off to sleep and then find that hes still on your mind in the morning.

This book was born from grief but it pulses with the life of an unforgettable young man. The story is deftly told by Robert Peaces white college roommate and good friend Jeff Hobbs someone who knew Robert well but didnt. Written with great compassion yet unflinching honesty the book invites you to contemplate the meaning of one mans lifea life that couldve turned out so differently.

The question that will tease and torment you but can never ever be answered will linger: Why? Why would an astonishingly brilliant young black man who worked so tirelessly as a teen?? overcoming incredible odds to get out of the ??hood?? out of crushing poverty?? and off to Yale?? and who excelled once he was there ? academically as well as socially ? why would he forfeit all of the opportunity that was now waiting for him?? the shining path that lay ahead beckoning him? Why would Robert Peace toss it all away so that he could return to his ??hood?? deal drugs?? and try to make it on a path that was so obviously doomed? Why?

My husband read the book because I could not stop talking about it. We disagree completely on why Robert P