"Deeply moving... A stranger-than-fiction bildungsroman... This is a book of great compassion that traces the contours of a single remarkable life. But Bergner is also doing something more expansive, examining the long and tormented history of black involvement in an elite artistic tradition and in society at large. Ultimately, this is a story that captures that most inexplicable thing—the human will itself."
—Thomas Chatterton Williams, New York Times Book Review

"Sing for Your Life is about the hard legacy of history and family, and its transcendence through art. This is Daniel Bergner's masterpiece and puts him at the top of American literary journalism."
—George Packer, National Book Award–winning author of The Unwinding and The Assassins' Gate

"Absolutely riveting."
—Renée Fleming

"Written with filmlike immediacy... A vital, compelling and highly recommended book."
—Anne Midgette, The Washington Post

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"This book—how do I put this without sounding hyperbolic? This book should be read by every woman on earth. … It is a must-read for any person with even a remote erotic interest in the female gender. … It could single-spine-edly replace at least a quarter of the sexual self-help section and the world would be better for it. It is a revelation, a story of redemption. I laughed, I almost cried—with joy. I was turned on, even. You want a female Viagra? This book is as close as we have to it."
—Salon

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"Riveting ... Bergner's gift as a writer is his ability to combine the story-telling of a talented novelist with a journalist's skill at standing back and letting his subjects speak for themselves."
—New York Times Book Review

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"A rare book indeed. ... Bergner's journey is arduous, dangerous, and brave—a journey in which author and reader are irrevocably changed."
—Sunday Times of London

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"Chilling and heartbreaking ... a vivid, ambitious, and ferociously reported book that reads like a novel."
—New York Times Book Review

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