Upstate: A Novel

Harlem, 1985. Antonio has been seeing Natasha for a while now. Their relationship is full of the drama, the passion and the intensity of every first love affair. But their story is different. For Antonio is on trial for the murder of his father. This is Natasha and Antonio's story, one struggling to cope with life in jail, the other with life outside. Extraordinarily vivid and honest, their letters to each other narrate the rollercoaster ride of first love with stunning insight. In jail after being charged with his father's murder, seventeen-year-old Antonio finds his love with sixteen-year-old Natasha tested and engages in a ten-year correspondence with her from behind bars. Baby, the first thing I need to know from you is do you believe I killed my father? So begins Upstate, a powerful story told through letters between seventeen-year-old Antonio and his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Natasha, set in the 1990's in New York. Antonio and Natasha's world is turned upside down, and their young love is put to the test, when Antonio finds himself in jail, accused of a shocking crime. Antonio fights to stay alive on the inside, while on the outside; Natasha faces choices that will change her life. Over the course of a decade, they share a desperate correspondence. Often, they have only each other to turn to as life takes them down separate paths and leaves them wondering if they will ever find their way back together. Startling, real, and filled with raw emotion, Upstate is an unforgettable coming of age story with a message of undeniable hope. Brilliant and profoundly felt, it is destined to speak to a new generation of readers The story of a young couple in love and their struggle to maintain a relationship while the young man is incarcerated for a horrendous crime. In their letters beginning in 1990, Natasha and Antonio look back at their courtship against the landscape of their beloved Harlem