Hangman (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780374610074)

National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, Vulture, and BBC

An enthralling and original first novel about exile, diaspora, and the impossibility of Black refuge in America and beyond.

In the morning, I received a phone call and was told to board a flight. The arrangements had been made on my behalf. I packed no clothes, because my clothes had been packed for me. A car arrived to pick me up.

A man returns home to sub-Saharan Africa after twenty-six years in America. When he arrives, he finds that he doesn't recognize the country or anyone in it. Thankfully, someone recognizes him, a man who calls him brother--setting him on a quest to find his real brother, who is dying.

In Hangman, Maya Binyam tells the story of that search, and of the phantoms, guides, tricksters, bureaucrats, debtors, taxi drivers, relatives, and riddles that will lead to the truth.

This is an uncommonly assured debut: an existential journey; a tragic farce; a slapstick tragedy; and a strange, and strangely honest, story of one man's stubborn quest to find refuge--in this world and in the world that lies beyond it.

Author: Maya Binyam
ISBN-10: 037461007X
ISBN-13: 9780374610074
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language: English
Published: 08/08/2023
Pages: 208
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.52h x 5.79w x 0.81d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 03/01/2023 pg. 6
Publishers Weekly 06/19/2023
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2023
Booklist 01/12/2024