Akúa is returning home to Jamaica for the first time in ten years. Her younger brother has died suddenly, and Akúa hopes to reconnect with her estranged older sister, Tamika. Over three fateful weeks, the sisters visit significant places from their childhood where Akúa spreads her brother’s ashes. But time spent with Tamika only seems to make apparent how different they are and how alone Akúa feels.
Then Akúa meets Jayda, a brash stripper who reveals a different side of Kingston. As the two women grow closer, Akúa is forced to confront the difficult reality of being gay in a deeply religious family, and what it means to be a gay woman in Jamaica. Her trip comes to a frenzied and dangerous end, but not without a glimmer of hope of how to be at peace with her sister—and herself.
By turns diasporic family saga, bildungsroman, and terse sexual awakening, Broughtupsy asks: What are we willing to do for family, and what are we willing to do to feel at home?
Akúa is returning home to Jamaica for the first time in ten years. Her younger brother has died suddenly, and Akúa hopes to reconnect with her estranged older sister, Tamika. Over three fateful weeks, the sisters visit significant places from their childhood where Akúa spreads her brother’s ashes. But time spent with Tamika only seems to make apparent how different they are and how alone Akúa feels.
Then Akúa meets Jayda, a brash stripper who reveals a different side of Kingston. As the two women grow closer, Akúa is forced to confront the difficult reality of being gay in a deeply religious family, and what it means to be a gay woman in Jamaica. Her trip comes to a frenzied and dangerous end, but not without a glimmer of hope of how to be at peace with her sister—and herself.
By turns diasporic family saga, bildungsroman, and terse sexual awakening, Broughtupsy asks: What are we willing to do for family, and what are we willing to do to feel at home?
| Published By | House of Anansi Press Inc — Jan 23, 2024 |
| Specifications | 240 pages | 5.5 in x 8.25 in |
| Keywords | frying plantain; zalika reid benta; lgbtq; coming of age; caribbean diaspora; eglinton west; short reads; black lives matter; best books 2024; |
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Excerpt |
| Written By |
CHRISTINA COOKE’s writing has previously appeared in PRISM international, The Caribbean Writer, Prairie Schooner, Epiphany: A Literary Journal, and elsewhere. A MacDowell Fellow, Writers' Trust M&S Journey Prize winner, and 2022 Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award winner, she holds an MA from the University of New Brunswick and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Born in Jamaica, Christina is now a Canadian citizen who lives and writes in New York City. |
| Written By |
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CHRISTINA COOKE’s writing has previously appeared in PRISM international, The Caribbean Writer, Prairie Schooner, Epiphany: A Literary Journal, and elsewhere. A MacDowell Fellow, Writers' Trust M&S Journey Prize winner, and 2022 Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award winner, she holds an MA from the University of New Brunswick and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Born in Jamaica, Christina is now a Canadian citizen who lives and writes in New York City. |
The story builds to a fierce, then sweetly redemptive, climax. The voice of innocence, the violence, and the sibling dynamics of Cooke’s debut recall Justin Torres’ We the Animals (2011), also a queer coming-of-age story—but this blend of those elements is as unique as a thumbprint. Vivid, emotionally intense, and unafraid of the dark.
” —KirkusCooke makes an assured debut … [She] successfully evokes the temerity and rebellious intelligence of Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse.
” —Publishers WeeklyA moving coming-of-age story.
” —BooklistBroughtupsy is the work of a writer of immense heart. Cooke’s sharp imagination grows the more you read this novel, which by turns, brims with careful, sensitive storytelling. This debut promises, delivers, and delights.
” —Canisia Lubrin, author of Code NoirThrough prose that leaps off the page and burrows under your skin, Christina Cooke renders a Jamaica that is lush, sensuous, and brimming with hope and joy. A heartrending exploration of grief, loss, identity, and desire—of family and all the ways the ones you love can hurt and heal you—Broughtupsy is a marvel.
” —Jasmine Sealy, author of The Island of ForgettingCooke's prose is vivid, propulsive, and visceral.
” —Angie Cruz, author of How Not to Drown in a Glass of WaterChristina Cooke’s Broughtupsy is a searing, touching, and often funny meditation on family fault lines drawn by migration, homophobia, cultural difference, and sibling order, from a talented new writer among us.
” —Emily Raboteau, author of Searching for ZionPeppered with music, sensuality, and unflinching emotion, Broughtupsy completely immersed me in Akúa’s fraught homecoming journey through the heat and the heart of Kingston. Christina Cooke poses thrillingly nuanced, provocative questions about what it means to feel at home, what we owe to our families, and how to guard the boundaries of the self while navigating it all. A gorgeous debut!
” —Dawnie Walton, author of The Final Revival of Opal & NevA luminous tale of a latter-day Antigone who navigates grief, love, death, sex, violence, language, queerness, race, and three countries with courage, joy, and a tender heart. Broughtupsy is an instant classic and Christina Cooke brings beauty and truth to every page.
” —Stacey D'Erasmo, author of The ComplicitiesWhat a brilliant novel Broughtupsy is, with its crackling dialogue and vivid descriptions of the sights, sounds, and smells of Kingston—don’t read it when you’re hungry! I longed for nothing more than for Akúa, the passionate, opinionated heroine, to safely navigate the vicissitudes of loss and sisterhood. A stunning debut.
” —Margot Livesey, author of The Boy in the FieldChristina Cooke’s Broughtupsy is a fiery debut novel that breaks new ground. It recounts the coming of age of an Afro-Caribbean lesbian who travels home to Jamaica from Canada seeking solace and finds her sense of self threatened by the triple undertow of grief, alienation, and homophobia.
” —Naomi Jackson, author of The Star Side of Bird Hill