Victim by Andrew Boryga
“I wasn’t trying to play the victim until the world taught me what a powerful grift it is.” This is the opening sentence of Victim, a novel presented as the memoir of flawed protagonist and Bronx native Javi Perez, who plays the game of tragic storytelling to his own advantage. Javi learns that his background – murdered father, single, struggling mother, best friend an imprisoned gang member – is the perfect route to fame and fortune, and he is soon creating – and selling – stories around his identity in order to gain recognition as a writer. This shrewd “hustling Icarus”, as the New York Times Book Review describes him, is at this centre of this “energetic and deeply satisfying debut novel”. The Southern Review of Books praises the author’s mastery of character: “Boryga’s character development is exceptional. He draws the reader into Javi’s psyche, experiencing his constant rationalisations, the fear of being caught, and the occasional pangs of guilt.” (LB)
Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh
Blessings tells the story of shy protagonist Obiefuna’s struggle to fit into a society where homosexuality is criminalised, homophobia is unquestioned and where any gender non-conformism is condemned. When he is caught in a clinch with another boy, his conservative, dogmatic father is outraged, sending him off to a strict Christian boarding school. First love and first enmity soon follow, as Obiefuna matures and learns how the world works.The Observer describes Blessings as a “an emotive, affecting debut”, achieving “a blend of the particular and the universal, glossing traditional storytelling with a literary finesse that adds style without scaring the horses”. It is a “sublime coming-of-age tale, ” says the Guardian. “In a novel of secrecy, silences and silencing, Ibeh’s sentences throughout are fastidiously pruned.” (LB)
James by Percival Everett
For anyone previously unfamiliar with Everett’s decades-long career, they will likely know him now, after his acclaimed 2001 novel, Erasure was turned into the Oscar-nominated 2023 film American Fiction. Everett’s latest is a reimagining of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of the enslaved Jim, which hits all the familiar narrative beats of its inspiration while creating a dazzling (and very humorous) new work. “Gripping, painful, funny, horrifying, this is multi-level entertainment,” writes The Observer, “a consummate performance to the last.” (RL)
