Travis Boyette, recently paroled and suffering from an inoperable brain tumor, resolves to confess that he committed a murder nine years earlier for which another man was convicted and awaits execution, but finds it difficult to convince lawyers and judges of their error.

A little cement mixer learns that making mistakes isn't always a bad thing.

The author, a young reporter at a major New York newspaper, describes her month-long descent into madness from a rare autoimmune disorder that nearly killed her. The account draws from hospital records, surveillance video, interviews with family and friends, and excerpts from a journal her father kept during her illness.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Award-winning poet and critic Kevin Young traces the history of the hoax as a peculiarly American phenomenon--the legacy of P.T. Barnum's 'humbug' culminating with the currency of Donald J. Trump's 'fake news'. Disturbingly, Young finds that fakery is woven from stereotype and suspicion, with race being the most insidious American hoax of all. He chronicles how Barnum came to fame by displaying figures like Joice Heth, a black woman whom he pretended...