In his debut collection of short stories, Bryan Washington demonstrates the depth and dynamism of his native Houston, which embodies so many of the subjects at the crosshairs of national debate: diversity, borders, identity. Several of the stories are told by a narrator who is, in his own words, “too dark for the blancos, too Latin for the blacks.” The self-reflective character is discovering he’s gay and grappling with his father’s abandonment. In Washington’s insightful collection, readers also witness an affair between a Jamaican woman and a white man, and are introduced to hurricane survivors and drug dealers, among other indelible characters.
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