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.
Exceptional ... A caustic rendering of immigration, diaspora and deracination ... A marvel of compressed unease, the novel is also wildly exuberant. This is in no small part due to the tensile strength of Binyam’s prose. Her style is simple and matter of fact, but full of unexpected pivots. She is also very funny ... There’s dark wonder in the final moments of this exhilarating novel, as the narrator gives himself over at last to both his fate and his longing.
A slim, stark, and captivatingly enigmatic début novel ... Binyam wrings mordant humor from...paraphrased conversations ... A sphinxlike style ... Would be impressive enough as a Rorschach test about narratives of exile. But its fixation on illness and death also gives it a darker valence.
Engrossing and shrewd ... Readers might wonder if they have been thrust into a speculative world where both small talk and genuine introspection have been abolished ... Binyam pushes into the surreal to reorient readers yet again around basic conceptions of home and family.
