by Terry Bisson
ISBN: 978-0-87486-901-9
9780874869019
PP: 215
Publisher: Litmus Books
£9.99

This is terse, efficient prose. There are emotionally evocative presentations of family, friends, suffering, pain, and resistance. There is also an effective visual balance with reading fonts, image reproduction, and chapter titles.

Once you start reading, the current in On a Move is so strong you probably won’t be able to put it down. I read this in one sit; I tried to put it down. Failed. Had to keep on reading. I read until I was finished.

Before reading: I was not a Mumia supporter; I didn’t know much about his case; I was not pre-disposed to anything but deep suspicion about his trial. I suspected his membership in the BPP had doomed him to abuse.

After reading: I’m motivated to read more, watch some biopics, explore his educational work, locate and listen to his audio work. I definitely want to learn more, know more.

Terry Bisson’s On a Move is in exactly the same tradition of Mumia’s reporting: revolutionary writing, revolutionary reporting, designed to change hearts, minds, and improve the quality of all our lives.

If you want to know how to write prose that engages as powerfully as the best fiction yet presents fact and truth within the structures of non-fiction, read Bisson’s compelling biography of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Read the book. It is unforgettable.