Broughtupsy

“Cooke’s vibrant debut novel is a queer coming-of-age story and a chronicle of diasporic rediscovery.” —The Atlantic

“The idea of ‘going home’ is, for many members of the LGBTQ+ community, a complicated one...Cooke’s narration, at once poetic and conversational, lends Akúa’s story a sense of urgency and resonance.” —Vogue

“This is a deft debut overflowing with emotion.” —Elle

"Cooke makes an assured debut … [She] successfully evokes the temerity and rebellious intelligence of Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse." — Publishers Weekly

"Broughtupsy … weaves effortlessly between present and past, showing—often at a single glance—historic events and their effect in the present. It’s a dizzying, compelling effect, and one which Cooke achieves with a deceptive ease … A powerful account of an attempt to find a place, both in the physical world, and deep within the self." — Toronto Star

"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." — Kirkus

"A moving coming-of-age story." — Booklist

“This debut novel delivers an atmospheric story . . . If your favorite movie is Moonlight and/or you’re a Justin Torres stan, Broughtupsy will wound and delight.” —Chicago Review of Books

"Descriptive and Imaginative debut … Broughtupsy considers the demands of family, identity, and culture, as well as the complex nature of belonging." — Literary Review of Canada

“The experience of reading Broughtupsy is one of being dispersed, disbanded, maybe even unraveled. And then reconstituted, over and over. Some upbringings are like that. Some homecomings are a chance to disrupt the cycle.” — Prism International

"Christina Cooke’s Broughtupsy follows in the tradition of novels that invite readers to step over the threshold and insist on fully realised selfhood in the personal space one occupies: an engaging and rewarding debut." — The Temz Review

"Cooke’s lush prose is poetic, but clear and restrained enough to maintain the momentum of the main plot, which moves along at a refreshingly brisk pace … For all its emotional weight, Broughtupsy refuses to settle for easy answers." — Plenitude

"Cooke is excellent at showing the contrast between what gets said out loud, and the interior, unvoiced subtext … This novel is full of feelings." — British Columbia Review

"Broughtupsy 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 Noir

"Through 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 Forgetting

"Cooke's prose is vivid, propulsive, and visceral." — Angie Cruz, author of How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water

"What 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 Field

"Christina 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 Zion

"Peppered 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 & Nev

"A 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 Complicities

"Christina 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

"Broughtupsy is a tale that spans the hemisphere, from Jamaica to Texas to British Columbia. It also spans the evocative and intricate lengths of kinship and relationship. Christina Cooke weaves a tale of personal revelation and desire, spun from a language that is agile, vibrant, and expert in its registers." — Wayde Compton, author of The Outer Harbour and The Blue Road: A Fable of Migration