A deeply personal exploration of the generational impact of guns on the Black experience in America.

A few years ago, though fit and only 38, I nearly died of a heart attack. When my then five-year-old daughter, Nola, asked me why, I realized that to answer her honestly, I had to confront what almost killed me—the weight of being a Black man in America; of bearing witness, as a journalist, to relentless Black death; and of a family history scarred by enslavement, lynching, the Great Migration, the also insidious racism of the North, and gun violence that stole the lives of two great-uncles, a grandfather, a stepbrother, and two cousins.

In this powerful narrative, I weave three strands: the long and bloody history of African Americans and guns; my work as a chronicler of gun violence, tallying the costs and riches generated by both the legal and illegal gun industries; and my own life story— from almost being caught up in gun violence as a young man, to exploring the legacy of the Middle Passage in Ghana through my ancestors’ footsteps, and navigating the challenges of representing my people accurately in an overwhelmingly white and often hostile media world, and most importantly, to celebrating the enduring strength of my family and community.

In A Thousand Ways to Die, I answer Nola and all who seek a more just America. I share the hard truths and complexities of the Black experience, but I also celebrate the beauty and resilience that is Nola’s legacy.

Praise & Reviews

“DEEP, REVELATORY AND READABLE… Lee unearths an untold story about the ways the weapon has altered the geography, physiology and psychology of African Americans.” 
—Robert Samuels, co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning His Name is George Floyd

“It takes a special kind of fearlessness to stare deeply into the dark corners of our world and our history and candidly relay what you’ve found there. Trymaine Lee possesses it in abundance. THERE’S NO ONE BETTER EQUIPPED TO TELL THE STORY he chronicles here — and no one I trust more to get it right.” 
—Jelani Cobb, Dean, Columbia Journalism School

“A HISTORICAL AND LITERARY GIFT. In juxtaposing his family history and personal trauma with the bloody and painful history of gun violence in America, Trymaine Lee has crafted a brilliant narrative of generational struggle, hope, and resilience. This riveting blend of memoir, reportage, and history reveals how, for Black families, the heartbreak that accompanies premature death can engender healing only if we honor our stories and, in so doing, help to change the world.” 
—Peniel Joseph, LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Department of History, the University of Texas at Austin

“We all know Trymaine Lee as A PRESCIENT AND POWERFUL STORYTELLER of Black life.” 
—Imani Perry, National Book Award winning author of South to America, Professor, Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University

“A trenchant examination of how the personal intersects with the political, of the too-often high tolls of living Black in America. Trymaine Lee’s extraordinary journey is also A VITAL LESSON ON THE HEALING POWER OF SHARING WHOLE TRUTHS with our posterity. 
–Mitchell S. Jackson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

"A POETIC, POLITICAL, AND POWERFUL work —purposefully written to resonate with both today and the future."
– Shaka Senghor, bestselling author of Writing My Wrongs, Letters to the Sons of Society and How to be Free