This debut novel has a very intriguing premise, that of a family chosen to teach sign language to a chimpanzee. It got my brain moving, it got me off kilter, and that so rarely happens. It's unusual that after a book is over I want to ask its author a hundred questions, but in this case I really do. It takes risks, it doesn't follow a formula, it doesn't feel like anything else you've read. I love the messiness of it, I love the craziness of Charlotte and Callie's stories. No, this tension is knowing that so many things are wrong, so many things are close to breaking, that at any moment everything could fall apart and when that happens you don't know what it will look like. Not like a thriller where someone suddenly reveals they're about to blow up a building.
It's the kind of book where anything could happen at any moment, where there's this feeling of tension that lies under the surface. It is running out ahead of you through dense jungle and you aren't sure you can keep up, oh and you have no idea where it is you're going. It does not hold your hand and talk sweetly to you while you walk a well-trodden path. a sharp, poignant, extraordinary new voice of American literature.” -Téa Obreht, author of The Tiger’s Wifeĭo not be fooled by this warm and fuzzy title. “A magnificently textured, vital, visceral feat of storytelling. What appears to be a story of mothers and daughters, of sisterhood put to the test, of adolescent love and grown-up misconduct, and of history’s long reach, becomes a provocative and compelling exploration of America’s failure to find a language to talk about race. The power of this shattering novel resides in Greenidge’s undeniable storytelling talents.
But when Charlotte discovers the truth about the institute’s history of questionable studies, the secrets of the past invade the present in devious ways. The Freemans were selected because they know sign language they are supposed to teach it to Charlie and welcome him as a member of their family. They will live in an apartment on campus with Charlie, a young chimp abandoned by his mother. The Freeman family-Charles, Laurel, and their daughters, teenage Charlotte and nine-year-old Callie-have been invited to the Toneybee Institute to participate in a research experiment. A rich examination of America’s treatment of race, and the ways we attempt to discuss and confront it today.” - The Huffington Post “A terrifically auspicious debut.” -Janet Maslin, The New York Times
A FINALIST FOR THE 2016 CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE AND THE 2017 YOUNG LIONS AWARD
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