Book Description
This remarkable true story begins in a Brooklyn ghetto
when a group of Canadians meets Lesra (Lazarus), an
illiterate black teenager who wins their hearts. They end up
bringing him to Toronto to help with his education, and while
learning to read, Lesra finds a copy of Rubin
"Hurricane" Carter's The Sixteenth Round. It
was a book destined to change Lesra's life forever, and the
lives of his adopted family.
Rubin Carter, the subject of Bob Dylan's song
"Hurricane," was a number one middleweight boxing
contender who had been wrongfully imprisoned after a white
jury found him guilty of the murder of three whites in 1966.
A huge public outcry followed the publication of The
Sixteenth Round in 1974, culminating in a retrial, which
was a virtual reenactment of the original travesty, with
Carter receiving the same triple life sentence.
Moved by Lesra's passion, his adopted Canadian family
contacted Carter and reinvigorated the legal battle. The
inspiring relationship that ensued forms the heart of Lazarus
and the Hurricane--a riveting legal drama, fast-paced
murder investigation, and above all, a moving account of
hope, humanity, and the indomitability of the human spirit.