The fool

"A stunningly beautiful debut novel about a Yoruba man recounting his life after his son comes out-and revealing the mislaid parts of himself, the paths not taken along the way. When Niyi hears that 30-year-old son, Junior, is gay, the discovery unmoors him. Junior confirms the news and Niyi finds himself uncharacteristically speechless. In the days and weeks afterward, the world around him seems to take on a strange, piercing clarity. With a sudden, burning need to re-examine his life, Niyi writes a letter to Junior, trying to put into words what he wants to say, even though he isn't even sure what it is. He begins by describing their family history, the line and the land that they both belong to and must continue. But what starts as a clumsy attempt at parenting soon becomes an excavation into Niyi's own past, into the joys and turbulence of his adolescence, the divergent influences of his own parents-and as he continues to write, Niyi unearths more about himself than he has ever cared to acknowledge.