Wesley Brown’s new novel,
PUSH COMES TO SHOVE, takes readers back to the Vietnam Era, when
fear mixed with freedom to create a time unlike any other in US history.
Brown’s brilliant, sweeping novel of activism and violence reminds
us that years of struggle and personal sacrifice led the way from the
Civil Rights Movement to the first black U.S. President.  

As the turbulent Sixties draw
to a close, NYC police raid the headquarters of Push Comes to Shove—a
group of black activists, dreamers, and lovers based in a gritty tenement
in Lower Manhattan—and kill Walter Armstead with a shotgun blast to
the face. Was he an innocent victim of violent times? Police collaborator?
Or both? His death triggers a series of violent reprisals from extremists
in the group—from a subway bombing to kidnappings to a showdown in
the Black Hills of South Dakota. “As someone who came of age during
the 1960’s,” Brown says. “I’ve always been amazed by all the
conventional beliefs that were called into question and, for better
and worse, the extremes to which people on all sides of these questions
were willing to go.” 

It’s a turbulent time that
Wesley Brown knows well. Brown worked with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic
Party in 1965 and became a member of the Black Panther Party in 1968.
In 1972, he was sentenced to three years in prison for refusing induction
into the armed services and spent 18 months in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary.
For 27 years, Brown was a much-revered Professor at Rutgers University,
where he inspired hundreds of students, including novelist Junot Diaz.
He retired in 2007, and currently teaches literature at Bard College
at Simon’s Rock. He is also an accomplished playwright. 

Push Comes to Shove
is the second book from the Concord Free Press, which publishes novels
and gives them away for free, asking that readers make a voluntary donation
to a local charity or individual in need. Its first novel, GIVE +
TAKE by Stona Fitch, generated more than $40,000 in donations to
diverse causes and individuals in need throughout the world. The press
creates controversy and inspires praise for its radical rethinking of
what a book can be—and its unique, generosity-based business model.  

Brown has two previous novels
(TRAGIC MAGIC, DARKTOWN STRUTTERS) from traditional publishers.
Why did he choose the Concord Free Press for his third? “I’m excited
by the possibility that the publication of a book could have a direct
impact, for the better, on the circumstances of people’s lives,”
he says.