The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (Oprah's Book Club Summer 2018 Selection)

Anthony Ray Hinton · Lara Love Hardin

Mar 2018 · Macmillan Audio · Narrated by Bryan Stevenson and Kevin R. Free

About this audiobook

Oprah's Book Club Summer 2018 Selection

A powerful, revealing story of hope, love, justice, and the power of reading by a man who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he didn't commit.

“An amazing and heartwarming story, it restores our faith in the inherent goodness of humanity.”
—Archbishop Desmond Tutu

In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. Stunned, confused, and only twenty–nine years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free.

But with no money and a different system of justice for a poor black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution. He spent his first three years on Death Row at Holman State Prison in agonizing silence—full of despair and anger toward all those who had sent an innocent man to his death. But as Hinton realized and accepted his fate, he resolved not only to survive, but find a way to live on Death Row. For the next twenty–seven years he was a beacon—transforming not only his own spirit, but those of his fellow inmates, fifty–four of whom were executed mere feet from his cell. With the help of civil rights attorney and bestselling author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, Hinton won his release in 2015.

With a foreword by Stevenson, The Sun Does Shine is an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times. Destined to be a classic memoir of wrongful imprisonment and freedom won, Hinton’s memoir tells his dramatic thirty–year journey and shows how you can take away a man’s freedom, but you can’t take away his imagination, humor, or joy.

This program includes a forward written and read by Bryan Stevenson.

Praise for The Sun Does Shine audiobook:

"The incredible details of Hinton's trial and eventual release are narrated in an honest, easy style by Kevin R. Free...He captures the Southern rhythms of Hinton's speech with a natural cadence that brings us closer to his pain." — AudioFile Magazine

"Kevin R. Free performs this work with flashes of anger cast over a deep humility, and captures the sense of humor that Hinton was, incredibly, able to hold on to during his long years in solitary confinement...This is a story that enrages and inspires." — New York Times

Ratings and reviews

I listened to the audiobook for this and I'm so glad I did. Listening to the voice narration and hearing all the emotion through the book made it much more real. Everyone has a general and kind of in-the-back-of-my-mind concept of the humiliation and cruelty that is our prison/justice system thanks to t.v. and movies but I don't think many people actually understand what we're doing to human beings in the system. This book was eye opening and not only depicts the depression, rage and oppression that runs rampant in prison, but also the hope, love and kindness that is possible in people we believe to be irredeemable. I had actual tears in my eyes during passages that talked about how many men on death row found more love and compassion with their fellow inmates than with the free society outside. This is definitely a MUST READ for young adults who have troubled lives and even those who don't because many of the people who end up in jail and death row are young and don't know any better

I have spent countless hours as an all-denominational volunteer minister in both our county jail and our state prison. I cringed over Mr. Hinton's agony due to his disgraceful treatment by law enforcement and court officials who cared nothing for truth - just getting another conviction. I salute & celebrate his remarkable resilience under such terrible injustice. God knows all our sorrows. Anthony Ray Hinton is a lighthouse of hope for all who find themselves falsely accused and convicted.

Very Good Book, the more I read..I too felt as if I was in this story, it was times I had to look around to make sure I was in the present..Inspirational to Always Stand in Faith No Matter what the Circumstances is..

About the author

ANTHONY RAY HINTON spent nearly thirty years on death row for crimes he didn’t commit. Released in April 2015, Hinton now speaks widely on prison reform and the power of faith and forgiveness. He lives in Alabama.