The astonishing journey of a bright, utterly displaced boy from the short-lived African nation of Biafra, to Jamaica, to the harshest streets of Los Angeles-a fierce and funny memoir that adds fascinating depth to the coming-to-America story
The first time Chude-Sokei realizes that he is "first son of the first son" of a renowned leader of the bygone African nation of Biafra is in Uncle Daddy and Big Auntie's Seventh-Day Adventist "home" in Jamaica, where he lives with his fellow abandoned children. A visiting African has just fallen to his knees to shake him by the shoulders: "Is this the boy? Is this him?"

Chude-Sokei's immersion into the politics of race and belonging across the landscape of the African diaspora takes a turn when his traumatized mother, who has her own extraordinary history as the one-time "Jackie O of Biafra," finally sends for him to come live with her. In Inglewood, Los Angeles, on the eve of gangsta rap and the LA riots,...