Dear Marcus: Speaking to the Man Who Shot Me

As a boy, Jerome moves from Brooklyn to the Lower East Side in Manhattan, and everything seems grand.

There is more light and more excitement in this new place. And even though times are tough for a family led by a single mother, Jerome sees a promising future for himself. By the young age of twelve, he’s already excelling as an athlete and performer.

But everything swiftly changes one night for Jerome. Walking home from a party with a friend, he’s shot in the back. Shortly after, he learns he’ll be paralyzed for life.

Jerome never meets his attacker, and the authorities never catch the person. News of a black adolescent getting shot in Manhattan doesn’t even rate a paragraph in the local paper. With only his close circle of friends, family and caregivers, Jerome is left looking for answers.

Rather than settle into a world of depression and anger, however, Jerome goes on to live a fulfilling and rewarding life. In this touching memoir, he confronts not only the demons he knows, but the one that remains mysterious, the one he reaches out to in Dear Marcus.