Book

If I survive you / Jonathan Escoffery.

Summary:

In the 1970s, Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. But America, as the couple and their two children learn, is far from the promised land. Excluded from society as Black immigrants, the family pushes on through Hurricane Andrew and later the 2008 recession, living in a house so cursed that the pet fish launches itself out of its own tank rather than stay. But even as things fall apart, the family remains motivated, often to its own detriment, by what their younger son, Trelawny, calls "the exquisite, racking compulsion to survive." The linked stories in If I Survive You center on Trelawny as he struggles to carve out a place for himself amid financial disaster, racism, and flat-out bad luck. After a fight with Topper, Trelawny claws his way out of homelessness through a series of odd, often hilarious jobs. Meanwhile, his brother, Delano, attempts a disastrous cash grab to get his kids back, and his cousin Cukie looks for a father who doesn't want to be found. As each character searches for a foothold, they never forget the profound danger of climbing without a safety net. -- Provided by publisher.

Record details

ISBN: 9780374605988
ISBN: 037460598X
Physical Description: 260 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York : MCD ; 2022.
Copyright: ©2022

Content descriptions

Formatted Contents Note:

In flux -- Under the ackee tree -- Odd jobs -- Pestilence -- Splashdown -- Independent living -- If he suspected he'd get someone killed this morning, Delano would never leave his couch -- If I survive you.