Welcome to Litsy!

A stunning debut novel, from Rhodes Scholar and winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, Tope Folarin about a Nigerian family living in Utah and their uncomfortable assimilation to American life. Living in small-town Utah has always been an uneasy fit for Tunde Akinola�s family, especially for his Nigeria-born parents. Though Tunde speaks English with a Midwestern accent, he can�t escape the children who rub his skin and ask why the black won�t come off. As he struggles to fit in and find his place in the world, he finds little solace from his parents who are grappling with their own issues. Tunde�s father, ever the optimist, works tirelessly chasing his American dream while his wife, lonely in Utah without family and friends, sinks deeper into schizophrenia. Then one otherwise-ordinary morning, Tunde�s mother wakes him with a hug, bundles him and his baby brother into the car, and takes them away from the only home they�ve ever known. But running away doesn�t bring her, or her children, any relief from the demons that plague her; once Tunde�s father tracks them down, she flees to Nigeria, and Tunde never feels at home again. He spends the rest of his childhood and young adulthood searching for connection�to the wary stepmother and stepbrothers he gains when his father remarries; to the Utah residents who mock his father�s accent; to evangelical religion; to his Texas middle school�s crowd of African-Americans; to the fraternity brothers of his historically black college. In so doing, he discovers something that sends him on a journey away from everything he has known. Sweeping, stirring, and perspective-shifting, A Particular Kind of Black Man is a beautiful and poignant exploration of the meaning of memory, manhood, home, and identity as seen through the eyes of a first-generation Nigerian-American.