Full title: Hell of a Book, or the Altogether Factual, Wholly Bona Fide Story of a Big Dreams, Hard Luck, American-Made Mad Kid
A Black author sets out on a cross-country publicity tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline is the scaffolding of something much larger and more urgent: this National Book Award-winning novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour. As these stories converge, they ask readers to embrace the fantastical in order to get to the heart of racism, police violence, and the hidden costs exacted upon not only Black Americans, but America as a whole.
Date of publication:
2021