Traversing heritage across three continents, this poignant coming-of-age novel chronicles the enduring presence of systemic racism and the resistance to it. Born in Cameroon and raised in the suburbs of Paris, Nathan feels unmoored, as if he does not belong in France. His mother tells him about his great-grandfather who left Cameroon for New Orleans to seek his fortune shortly after World War II. Nathan travels there to search for the vestiges of his ancestor-s passage in America. To him, New Orleans is the promised land for the Black man. However, renting a room in a shotgun house in the Trem-istrict, he discovers a different reality. This storied neighborhood testifies to the strength of a people who have survived slavery, segregation, and the struggle for civil rights with a strong sense of community. But the relentless inequities, capped by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, have taken a toll. As Nathan comes to understand this fraught history, he also plumbs his own past, includ
