{"product_id":"if-i-survive-you-9780374605988","title":"If I Survive You","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eIf I Survive You \u003c\/i\u003eis a collection of connected short stories that reads like a novel, that reads like real life, that reads like fiction written at the highest level. --Ann Patchett, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Dutch House\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKaleidoscopic, urgent, hilarious, revelatory and like nothing you've read before.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e--Marlon James, author of \u003ci\u003eMoon Witch, Spider King\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA major debut, blazing with style and heart, that follows a Jamaican family striving for more in Miami, and introduces a generational storyteller.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 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.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMasterfully constructed with heart and humor, the linked stories in Jonathan Escoffery's \u003ci\u003eIf I Survive You\u003c\/i\u003e 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--himself reckoning with his failures as a parent and his longing for Jamaica--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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePulsing with vibrant lyricism and inimitable style, sly commentary and contagious laughter, Escoffery's debut unravels what it means to be in between homes and cultures in a world at the mercy of capitalism and whiteness. With \u003ci\u003eIf I Survive You\u003c\/i\u003e, Escoffery announces himself as a prodigious storyteller in a class of his own, a chronicler of American life at its most gruesome and hopeful.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e MCD\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/06\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780374605988\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 272\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal Prepub Alert\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/01\/2022 pg. 4\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/06\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/01\/2022 pg. 64\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/01\/2022\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Jonathan Escoffery","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42277319573685,"sku":"9780374605988","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_c1b0323a-2200-4272-9dbf-2b2f26c2fb6c.jpg?v=1657597436","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/if-i-survive-you-9780374605988","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}