First published 2012
Achilles Conroy and his brother Troy come home from their deployment in Afghanistan to find their white adoptive mother waiting with envelopes. Inside are details about their respective birth parents. Troy takes his envelope and disappears. Achilles sets out to find his missing brother, following a trail that leads him deep into questions he never wanted to ask. The search becomes a reckoning with identity, family, and what it means to belong nowhere and everywhere at once. As Achilles tracks Troy across the country, he discovers that finding his brother means confronting truths about race, love, and the wars that rage both overseas and at home. The journey transforms Achilles in ways he never expected, forcing him to examine not just where Troy went, but who they both really are.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, military-fiction, contemporary, family-drama, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, search
Setting: Afghanistan
Period: 21st-century
340 pages · Kindle Edition · Coffee House Press
Content warnings: racism