First published 2023
Trelawny grows up answering the same bewildering question: "What are you?" His parents Topper and Sanya escaped Kingston's violence in 1979, bringing their family to Miami where American dreams prove harder to grasp than expected. His older brother Delano makes increasingly desperate choices to build a future for his own children. Their father's unreliability compounds the family's struggles as they weather financial collapse and Hurricane Andrew's destruction. The brothers find themselves competing rather than supporting each other, their rivalry threatening to fracture what remains of their family bonds. Trelawny must figure out how to survive between worlds, caught between his parents' Jamaican roots and an America that views him with suspicion. These linked stories follow one young man's search for belonging in a place that offers little welcome to people like him.
Genres: american-fiction, african-american, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Kingston, Miami
Period: 1979
272 pages · Hardcover · Fourth Estate Ltd