Live to See the Day

Coming of Age in American Poverty

By: Nikhil Goyal

Narrated by: Christopher F. Costa

Long-listed, New Yorker Best Books of the Year, 2023

An indelible portrait of three children struggling to survive in the poorest neighborhood of the poorest large city in America

Kensington, Philadelphia, is distinguished only by its poverty. It is home to Ryan, Giancarlos, and Emmanuel, three Puerto Rican children who live among the most marginalized families in the United States. This is the story of their coming-of-age, which is beset by violence—the violence of homelessness, hunger, incarceration, stray bullets, sexual and physical assault, the hypermasculine logic of the streets, and the drug trade. In Kensington, eighteenth birthdays are not rites of passage but statistical miracles.

One mistake drives Ryan out of middle school and into the juvenile justice pipeline. For Emmanuel, his queerness means his mother’s rejection and sleeping in shelters. School closures and budget cuts inspire Giancarlos to lead walkouts, which get him kicked out of the system. Although all three are high school dropouts, they are on a quest to defy their fate and their neighborhood and get high school diplomas.

In a triumph of empathy and drawing on nearly a decade of reporting, sociologist and policymaker Nikhil Goyal follows Ryan, Giancarlos, and Emmanuel on their mission, plunging deep into their lives as they strive to resist their designated place in the social hierarchy. In the process, Live to See the Day confronts a new age of American poverty, after the end of “welfare as we know it,” after “zero tolerance” in schools criminalized a generation of students, after the odds of making it out are ever slighter.

A Macmillan Audio production from Metropolitan Books.

©2023 Nikhil Goyal (P)2023 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"In this impassioned, riveting feat of reporting, Nikhil Goyal follows three extraordinary children who climb mountains every day to defy the hand that America dealt them. If we did not already know that children cannot learn well when they are hungry, homeless, and criminalized, this book will leave us in no doubt. At once uplifting and enraging, this eloquent indictment just might move those with power to make real changes, to ensure that all of our children can live to see the day."—Congressman Jamaal Bowman

“An incisive, compassionate depiction of families in a crisis not of their making and a vision of the policy choices our country could adopt to save their lives.”—Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us

"A heart-rending study of the heavy burden poor children bear in this country, Live to See the Day is a much-needed challenge to dreadful policy decisions, a predatory education and justice system, and a legacy of racism."—Greg Grandin, author of The End of the Myth

This is a must read if you care about Philadelphia

This is a must "read" for anyone who cares about Philadelphia and justice.
Excellent history of the Philadelphia education system told through the voices of Kensington residents who have endured lifetimes of trauma and neglect.

Informative view of inner-city life, but not great

The information was informative, but the narrator was distracting. He would annunciate the wrong words, sound cheery while narrating sad and traumatic content, and sound sad when narrating hopeful content. The information was exceptionally left-leaning. I am very left-leaning, but I hoped for a more balanced view. I feel for those children, though. We need to do something to help inner-city youth.

This is a must read!

If you want to know how those live in poverty, give this a listen.