Broughtupsy (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781646221882)

At once cinematic yet intimate, Broughtupsy is an enthralling debut novel about a young Jamaican woman grappling with grief as she discovers her family, her home, is always just out of reach

Tired of not having a place to land, twenty-year-old Ak俉 flies from Canada to her native Jamaica to reconnect with her estranged sister Tamika. Their younger brother Bryson has recently passed from sickle cell anemia--the same disease that took their mother ten years prior--and Ak俉 carries his remains in a small wooden box with the hope of reassembling her family.

Over the span of two fateful weeks, Ak俉 and Tamika visit significant places from their childhood, but time spent with her sister only clarifies how different they are, and how years of living abroad have distanced Ak俉 from her home culture. "Am I Jamaican?" she asks herself again and again. Beneath these haunting doubts lie anger and resentment at being abandoned by her own blood. "Why didn't you stay with me?" she wants to ask Tamika.

Wandering through Kingston with her brother's ashes in tow, Ak俉 meets Jayda, a brash stripper who shows her a different side of the city. As the two grow closer, Ak俉 confronts the difficult reality of being gay in a deeply religious family, and what being a gay woman in Jamaica actually means.

By turns diasporic family saga, bildungsroman, and terse sexual awakening, Broughtupsy is a profoundly moving debut novel that asks: what do we truly owe our family, and what are we willing to do to savor the feeling of home?

Author: Christina Cooke
ISBN-10: 1646221885
ISBN-13: 9781646221882
Publisher: Catapult
Language: English
Published: 01/23/2024
Pages: 240
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.88lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.70w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 10/15/2023
Publishers Weekly 10/16/2023
Booklist 11/01/2023 pg. 44