A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK - A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE - 2022 LAMBDA LITERARY PRIZE FOR GAY FICTION FINALIST The...

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK - A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE - 2022 LAMBDA LITERARY PRIZE FOR GAY FICTION FINALIST

The debut novel from television WRITER/PRODUCER OF THE CHI, NARCOS, and BEL-AIR tells a fierce and riveting queer coming-of-age story following the personal and political awakening of a young, gay, Black man in 1980s New York City.

"Consistently engrossing." --New York Times Book Review

"Full of joy and righteous anger, sex and straight talk, brilliant storytelling and humor... A spectacularly researched Dickensian tale with vibrant characters and dozens of famous cameos, it is precisely the book we've needed for a long time." --Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less

Earl "Trey" Singleton III arrives in New York City with only a few dollars in his pocket. Born into a wealthy Black Indianapolis family, at 17, he is ready to leave his overbearing parents and their expectations behind.

In the city, Trey meets up with a cast of characters that changes his life forever. He volunteers at a renegade home hospice for AIDS patients, and after being put to the test by gay rights activists, becomes a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Along the way Trey attempts to navigate past traumas and searches for ways to maintain familial relationships--all while seeking the meaning of life amid so much death.

Vibrant, humorous, and fraught with entanglements, Rasheed Newson's My Government Means to Kill Me is an exhilarating, fast-paced coming-of-age story that lends itself to a larger discussion about what it means for a young gay Black man in the mid-1980s to come to terms with his role in the midst of a political and social reckoning.

Author: Rasheed Newson
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Published: 08/23/2022
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.01lbs
Size: 9.44h x 6.54w x 0.93d
ISBN: 9781250833525


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 03/01/2022 pg. 7
Publishers Weekly 06/13/2022
Library Journal 08/01/2022 pg. 91
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2022

About the Author
Rasheed Newson is a writer and producer of Bel-Air, The Chi, and Narcos. He currently resides in Pasadena, California with his husband and two children. My Government Means to Kill Me is his debut novel.