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“[Kenji] Yoshino offers his personal search for authenticity as an encouragement for everyone to think deeply about the ways in which all of us have covered our true selves.… Engaging … we really do feel newly inspired.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“Yoshino argues convincingly in this book, part luminous, moving memoir, part cogent, level-headed treatise, that covering is going to become more and more a civil rights issue as the nation (and the nation’s courts) struggle with an increasingly multiethnic America.”

—San Francisco Chronicle

“[A] remarkable debut.… [Yoshino’s] sense of justice is pragmatic and infectious.”

—Time Out New York

“[Covering] is, at heart, a memoir, written by a legal scholar who might have missed his calling as a poet.… Powerful.”

—The Village Voice

“Who’d expect a book on civil rights and the law to be warmly personal, elegantly written, and threaded with memorable images?… The beauty of Yoshino’s book lies in the poetry he brings to telling his own story.”

—O: The Oprah Magazine

“A lush, frequently elegant account … Yoshino is a skillful narrative guide with a gift for describing the small dramas of still situations.”

—Legal Affairs

“Yoshino introduces a new term into the American social lexicon: ‘covering’ is the new ‘passing,’ the new ‘closet.’ … Provocative and affecting, Covering challenges us to be as open with one another as Yoshino is willing to be with us.”

—The Boston Globe

“The poignancy of [Yoshino’s] personal victory is as compelling as any other piece of his treatise.”

—Los Angeles Times

“[A] sober, rigorous and touching treatise on behalf of the disenfranchised that comes not a moment too soon … In times to come, this book could be viewed as a seminal work.”

—Chicago Sun-Times

“[Yoshino] eloquently weaves memoir and legal text in this lovely, moving, and persuasive book.… Real, raw, and beautiful.”

—Edge Providence

“[Yoshino’s] ground-breaking studies in civil rights are the product of embracing rather than hiding his identity as a gay Asian-American. Part legal theory, part memoir, [Covering] is a unique achievement.”

—The American Lawyer

“A valuable examination of an unexplored aspect of thwarted civil and social rights … Among other virtues, the book reveals a sharp legal mind and a genuine literary talent.”

—Frontiers

“Yoshino’s memoir-cum-treatise combines a provocative examination of the current state of civil rights with an account of his experiences as a gay Japanese-American.”

—The New Yorker

“[A] lyrical and thought-provoking book … significant.”

—The New Republic

“[A] brilliant work of art … Yoshino skillfully incorporates storytelling into a sharp critique.… Yoshino’s writing and analysis are first-rate.… A truly superb piece of work.”

—Legal Times

“Seldom has a work of such careful intellectual rigor and fairness been so deeply touching. [Yoshino] masterfully melds autobiography and legal scholarship.… As healing as it is polemical, this book has tremendous potential as a touchstone in the struggle for universal human dignity.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“[A] brilliantly argued and engaging book … a finely grained memoir of young man’s struggles to come to terms with his sexuality … a powerful argument for a whole new way of thinking about civil rights and how our society deals with difference. Kenji Yoshino is the face and the voice of the new civil rights.”

—BARBARA EHRENREICH, author of Nickel and Dimed

“An important, compelling new way to understand civil rights law … With great bravery and honesty, [Yoshino] has forged his argument from the cauldron of his own experience. In clear, lyrical prose, Coveringquite literally brings the law to life. [A book] as convincing to the spirit as it is to the mind.”

—ADAM HASLETT, author of You Are Not A Stranger Here

“Often moving and always clarifying … an original, arresting account of identity and authenticity in American culture.”

—K. ANTHONY APPIAH, author of The Ethics of Identity

and Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor

of Philosophy at Princeton