Originally published by in 2001. Faber have reissued this magnetic novel by Percival Everett with a brilliant introduction by Brandon Taylor. This is an incredibly funny book that is also simultaneously deeply poignant. It looks at race ,identity and anti-intellectualism in the US and takes a no holds barred approach to the cynicism of the publishing industry. It is a story of family, love and loss and also a piercing snapshot of simmering tensions in the pre- Trump US such as abortion rights. It is prescient and one of the most perfect novels I have read during my career as a bookseller.

In this criminally under-appreciated, under-the-radar, under-read novel, Everett explores the racism of expectation and the creative stifling of being literarily pigeonholed. Very few writers can make the deadly serious extremely funny, Everett achieves it by knowing all of better than we know ourselves and very much using it against us.