Winner of the 2013 Engine Books Novel Prize.

Moses and Jorge will never leave the maximum security prison. Outside its walls, Gina, Shell, and Ellen will never escape its influence, or the way it tethers them to one another. When Jorge dies in his cell, lives within and beyond the prison walls are upended, testing the boundaries we all draw to keep the good in, the hurtful out.

“A trio of faltering young women, each still tethered to the local prison,聽an inmate rapidly approaching his end鈥攁ll live inside these pages with haunting, visceral persuasiveness. Dreamlike and startling,聽You Are Free to Go聽is poised between the imagined ether and bloody reality, but Sarah Yaw never flinches.”
鈥擬ichelle Wildgen, author of聽Bread and Butter聽and聽You're Not You

“Sarah Yaw's聽You Are Free to Go聽presents a large-scale tragedy of the highest order. Its brutal, authentic account of despairing men in prison is haunting on every page. It is terrifying and heartbreaking in its multiple portrayals of the hungering for freedom experienced by family members on the outside. As you read this remarkable novel you will feel you have actually touched the characters' most unrelenting, life-stealing fears鈥攁nd you will understand the survival of hope occurring when their love endures despite their fears.”
鈥擪evin McIlvoy, author of聽Hyssop