Broughtupsy

MORE ADVANCE PRAISE FOR BROUGHTUPSY

“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

“After her younger brother dies of sickle cell anemia, Akúa returns home to her native Jamaica with his ashes in hopes of reconnecting with their estranged older sister, discovering both love and violence along the way. 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. Author Christina Cooke poses thrillingly nuanced, provocative questions about what it means to feel 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

“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

“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

“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

“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