*Finalist for the National Book Award for Non-fiction*

'His Name Is George Floyd is essential for our times.' Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist

'An intimate, unvarnished and scrupulous account of his life...brilliantly revealing.' NEW YORK TIMES

You know how he died. This is how he lived.

Who was George Floyd? What did he hope for? What was life like for him? And why has his death been the catalyst for such a powerful global response?

The murder of George Floyd sparked a summer of activism and unrest all over the world in 2020, from Shetland to Sao Paolo, as people marched under the Black Lives Matter banner, demanding an end to racial injustice. But behind a face that would be graffitied onto countless murals, and a name that has become synonymous with civil rights, there is the reality of one man's stolen life.

In His Name is George Floyd we meet the kind young boy who talked his friends out of beating up a skinny kid from another neighbourhood and then befriended him on the walk home. Big Floyd the high school American football player who ignored his coach's pleas to be more aggressive and felt queasy at the sight of blood. The man who fell victim to an opioid epidemic we are only just beginning to understand. The sensitive son and loving father, constantly in search of a better life in a society determined to write him off based on things he had no control over: where he grew up, the size of his body and the colour of his skin.

Drawing upon hundreds of interviews with friends and family members, His Name Is George Floyd reveals the myriad ways that structural racism shaped Floyd's life and death - from his forebears' roots in slavery to an underfunded education, the overpolicing of his community and the devastating snare of the prison system. By offering us an intimate portrait of this one, emblematic life, Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa deliver a powerful and moving exploration of how a man who simply wanted to breathe ended up touching the world.

About the Author
Robert Samuels is a national political enterprise reporter at The Washington Post. He has traveled across the United States over the course of three presidencies to write human stories about politics, race and the changing American identity. Toluse Olorunnipa is a political enterprise reporter for The Washington Post and a CNN analyst. Reporting from five continents and more than forty states during three presidencies, he has documented the real-world impact of the White House and federal policy on underserved communities.

Reviews
Since we know George Floyd's death with tragic clarity, we must know Floyd's America - and life - with tragic clarity. His Name Is George Floyd is essential for our times. -- Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist
'In this age of misinformation, where the victims of police killings are made out to be the problem, this humanising of Floyd is necessary... Samuels and Olorunnipa's greatest triumph is placing Floyd's life in the context of white supremacy.' * Observer *
An intimate, unvarnished and scrupulous account of his life...brilliantly revealing. * New York Times *
Detailed, vivid and moving. * Washington Post *
A wondrous feat of vivid writing and deep reporting, from the way it leads the reader through George Floyd's final fateful day on earth to its masterly account of Floyd's hopes and frustrations in the larger context of race in America. -- David Maraniss, author of Barack Obama: The Story
We have come to know George Floyd as a symbol but have known little of George Floyd the man. In a monumental work of reporting and storytelling, Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa reveal who George Floyd was in life, and the extent to which his death was the result not just of the callous choices of a single police officer but of four hundred years of societal decisions to devalue Black life. -- Wesley Lowery, author of They Can't Kill Us All: The Story of the Struggle for Black Lives
A sobering, deeply intimate account of George Floyd's life and all that he had to carry and contend with as a Black man coming of age in America. In a remarkable feat of reporting, Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa help us come to know Floyd as a full, rich, complicated human being. -- Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here
A much-needed portrait of the life, times, and martyrdom of George Floyd, a chronicle of the racial awakening sparked by his brutal and untimely death, and an essential work of history I hope everyone will read. -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr., author of The Black Church
A vivid, necessary portrait of a Black man in America, in all its nuance, tragedy, and fullness. -- Abby Phillip, CNN anchor and senior political correspondent
This multifaceted and exceptionally informative account is both a moving testament to Floyd and a devastating indictment of America's racial inequities. * Publishers Weekly *
Writing with cogency and compassion, the authors free Floyd from the realm of iconography, restoring his humanity . . . A brilliant biography, history book, and searing indictment. * Kirkus Reviews *
A wrenching chronicle of one of the most devastating events of our time . . . vital and illuminating. * Booklist *
His Name is George Floyd takes more than 400 interviews with Floyd's siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, cellmates, lovers, roommates, coaches, neighbours and teachers, and weaves them into a complex, compelling and lyrical biography. * Sydney Morning Herald *
Masterful, thorough and even-handed. * Associated Press *
An expertly researched and excellent biography, a necessary and enlightening read for all. * Atlantic *
The definitive work on who Floyd was and what his murder triggered. Gripping, heartbreaking, revelatory. * Oprah Daily *
A deeply reported biography... Vivid storytelling drawn from interviews with family and friends reveals how the clouds of poverty, addiction and racism that preside over America often loomed over and got the better of Floyd... A sobering and essential work. * New Statesman *
Excellent, important... A novelist seeking to create a character whose life exemplifies the challenges facing African American males could scarcely find a better model than Floyd. * Times Literary Supplement *
Deeply reported, expansive, and empathetic-gives readers a clearer understanding of a man who tried, against the steep odds of systemic racism, to lead a full, peaceful life in America. -- Top Ten Non-fiction Books of the Year * Time Magazine *
The definitive work on who Floyd was and what his murder triggered. Gripping, heartbreaking, revelatory. * Oprah Daily *
Detailed, vivid and moving. * Washington Post *



Book Information
ISBN 9781787635838
Author Robert Samuels
Format Hardback
Page Count 432
Imprint Bantam Press
Publisher Transworld Publishers Ltd
Weight(grams) 667g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 162mm * 38mm