First published 2015
D'aron Davenport grows up in Braggsville, Georgia, population 712, then heads west for college at UC Berkeley. The small-town white kid struggles to find his footing until a disastrous party connects him with three unlikely friends. Louis practices kung-fu comedy in California. Candice champions social causes and claims Native heritage from Iowa. Charlie, a thoughtful Black teenager, comes from Chicago's inner city. They call themselves the "4 Little Indians." Everything shifts when D'aron mentions his hometown's annual Civil War reenactment, now called "Patriot Days." His friends react with outrage. Candice proposes a "performative intervention" to protest the event. Armed with homemade slave costumes and college-bred confidence, the group travels south to Braggsville. They navigate backwoods churches, local politics, Waffle Houses, and family barbecues. What starts as comedy turns serious. The intervention has consequences none of them anticipated.
Genres: american-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, activism, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Braggsville, Georgia, UC Berkeley, California, Iowa, Chicago
Period: 21st-century
354 pages · Hardcover · William Morrow
Content warnings: racism