Author Description

Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's book, 'Random Family,' published in 2003, was the product of more than eleven years of immersive reporting. Beginning in 1990, when LeBlanc wrote about the trial of Boy George, a heroin dealer who would become a main character in the book, she practically lived with a sprawling clan in a poor neighborhood in the Bronx. LeBlanc's subjects sold drugs, did drugs, committed murder, went to prison, had sex, fell in love, got pregnant, fed their children. They shared ambitions and fears with a writer who was by their side for a decade. The book that resulted is an urban epic focused on Boy George, the successful and brutal young drug dealer of the trial; Jessica, a vibrant teen-age beauty, and one of Boy George's girlfriends; Cesar, Jessica's rambunctious younger brother; and Coco, Cesar's first love. LeBlanc also writes about the social issues - benefits administration, prison systems, public housing, addiction, teen pregnancy that, in large part, dictate the circumstances she witnessed.