Thandi is a black woman, but often mistaken for Hispanic or Asian.
She is American, but doesn’t feel as American as some of her friends.
She is South African, but doesn’t belong in South Africa either.
Her mother is dying.
‘Zinzi Clemmons’s debut novel signals the emergence of a voice that refuses to be ignored’ Paul Beatty, winner of the Man Booker Prize 2016
‘Navigates the many registers of grief, loss and injustice ... acutely moving’ Margo Jefferson, author of Negroland
‘Wise and tender and possessed of a fiercely insightful intimacy’ Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine
Zinzi Clemmons was raised in Philadelphia by a South African mother and an American father. Her writing has appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, the Paris Review Daily, Transition and elsewhere. She is a cofounder and former publisher of Apogee Journal and a contributing editor to Literary Hub. Clemmons lives in Los Angeles and teaches at the Colburn Conservatory and Occidental College.