by Marlon James
First published 2019
Tracker has built his reputation on an extraordinary sense of smell that makes him the most sought-after hunter in the land. People simply say "He has a nose" and everyone understands. When someone hires him to locate a boy who vanished three years ago, Tracker faces an unusual challenge. He has always worked alone, but this search forces him into an unlikely partnership with other hunters, each harboring their own secrets. Among them travels Leopard, a being who shifts between human and animal form. Together this mismatched band ventures across a landscape where African mythology bleeds into reality and the past refuses to stay buried. As they follow the trail of the missing child, Tracker discovers that finding the boy may be simpler than understanding why he disappeared. The search becomes a journey into the nature of truth itself, where every story has multiple versions and every answer births new questions.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, african-literature, fantasy
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Africa
620 pages · Hardcover · Riverhead Books
Content warnings: violence