First published 2019
In a Houston restaurant kitchen, a mixed-race teenager navigates family fractures and his emerging sexuality. His world is a mosaic of survival: siblings battling, parents struggling, neighbors hustling through urban margins. As hurricanes and heartbreak swirl around him, he learns that identity isn't a single story but a complex, shifting landscape. Each neighborhood, each character becomes a fragment of a larger, unfolding narrative about belonging, desire, and resilience in America's most diverse city.
Genres: american-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, resilience
Setting: Houston
Period: 21st-century
240 pages · Paperback · Riverhead Books