List $18.00

Written by E. Lynn Harris - Performed by Michael Boatman & Brenda Braxton - Abridged Fiction - CASSETTES

Publisher, Bantam Doubleday Dell (April 1999)

"Just As I Am more than delivers on the promise of Invisible Life. Harris gives his readers a refreshing view of African-American achievement, a touching characterization of a man living with AIDS, and a sensitive depiction of gay/straight friendships that is much to be hoped for in the world outside the book's pages." --The Atlanta Journal Constitution

E. Lynn Harris's blend of rich, romantic storytelling and controversial contemporary issues like race and bisexuality have found an enthusiastic and diverse audience across America. Readers celebrate the arrival in paperback of his second novel, Just As I Am, which picks up where Invisible Life left off, introducing Harris's appealing and authentic characters to a new set of joys, conflicts, and choices. Raymond, a young black lawyer from the South, struggles to come to terms with his sexuality and with the grim reality of AIDS. Nicole, an aspiring singer/actress, experiences frustration in both her career and in her attempts to find a genuine love relationship. Both characters share an eclectic group of friends who challenge them, and the reader, to look at themselves and the world around them through different eyes. By portraying Nicole's and Raymond's joys, as well as their pain, Harris never ceases to remind us that life, like love, is about self-acceptance. In this vivid portrait of contemporary black life, with all its pressures and the complications of bisexuality, AIDS, and racism, Harris confirms a faith in the power of love -- love of all kinds -- to thrill and to heal, which will warm the hearts of readers everywhere.

About the Author: E. Lynn Harris is a former IBM computer sales executive and a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He is the author of the novels, Abide With Me, Just As I Am, and the New York Times bestsellers And This Too Shall Pass and If This World Were Mine. In 1996, Just As I Am was awarded the Novel of the Year Prize by the Blackboard African-American Bestsellers, Inc. If This World were Mine was nominated for the 1997 NAACP Image Award and won the James Baldwin Award for Literary Excellence.

Harris's column, For All I Know, debuted in The Advocate in May. He divides his time between Chicago and New York, where he is working on a memoir.