A darkly funny and heartfelt debut novel about what it means to grow up young and black on the south side of Chicago when it feels like your choices are slim to none. Claude McKay Love is an average kid coping with abandonment, violence, riots, failed love, and societal pressures. As a young black man born on the South Side of Chicago, he is raised by his civil rights-era grandmother, who tries to shape him into a principled actor for change. When riots consume his neighborhood he hesitates to take sides, unwilling to let race define his life. He decides to escape Chicago to go to college, find a new identity, and leave the pressure cooker of his hometown behind. Is there is any safe haven for a young black man in this time and place called America? -- adapted from jacket