Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta: The Blackest book I've read in years (Paul Beatty)

"Didnt Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta" is a humorous and heart-wrenching story of a woman's re-entry into life on the outside after twenty years in incarceration. Carlotta Mercedes, a transgender Black Colombian heroine, is the star of Hannaham's second novel. After her conviction, she began to live as a woman, but prison authorities rejected her, keeping her trapped in an all-male cell block. Over twenty years later, she is granted conditional freedom and returns to a much-changed Brooklyn, where she struggles to reconcile with a family reluctant to accept her identity and to avoid any minor parole infraction that might get her consigned back to lockup. The novel challenges us to confront the glaring injustices of a society and prison system that continues to punish people long after their time has been served.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 06 October 2022
Publisher: Europa Editions (UK) Ltd

"Theres no one quite like Carlotta Mercedes, the transgender Black Colombian heroine – no, star – of the second novel by Hannaham."

When Carlotta Mercedes was pulled into a robbery gone wrong, she still went by the name she was born with. But not long after her conviction, she began to live as a woman, an embrace of selfhood that prison authorities rejected, keeping Carlotta trapped in an all-male cell block, abused by both inmates and guards.

Over twenty years later, Carlotta is granted conditional freedom and returns to a much-changed Brooklyn, where she struggles to reconcile with a family reluctant to accept her identity, and to avoid any minor parole infraction that might get her consigned back to lockup.

Didnt Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta sweeps the reader through seemingly every street of Brooklyn, much as Joyces Ulysses does through Dublin. Hannaham introduces a cast of unforgettable characters even as it challenges us to confront the glaring injustices of a society and prison system that continues to punish people long after their time has been served.

Weight: 304g
Dimension: 135 x 211 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781787704213