Bryan Stevenson’s memoir, Just Mercy, is a profoundly important work.

Lauded as a real-life Atticus Finch, Stevenson grew up a member of a poor black community in the racially segregated South. He was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young black man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit.

Stevenson’s book is at once an unforgettable account of a young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.

You can click here to read the first chapter. (Please note, this is a PDF download.)

Keep an eye out for the forthcoming film adaptation in late Janury, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, and starring Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, Rafe Spall, and Brie Larson.