Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s work evokes the clear vision of Ralph Ellison, the dizzying menace of Franz Kafka, and the crackling prose of Vladimir Nabokov. At its center is a father who just wants his son to thrive in a broken world. This electrifying, hallucinatory novel is at once a keen satire of surviving racism in America and a profoundly moving family story. But how far will he go to protect his son? And will he destroy his family in the process? The darker Nigel becomes, the more frightened his father feels. Like any father, our narrator just wants the best for his son, Nigel, a biracial boy whose black birthmark is getting bigger by the day. In this near-future Southern city plagued by fenced-in ghettos and police violence, more and more residents are turning to this experimental medical procedure. A complete demelanization will liberate you from the confines of being born in a black body-if you can afford it. Nzinga’s clinic, where anyone can get their lips thinned, their skin bleached, and their nose narrowed. “You can be beautiful, even more beautiful than before.” This is the seductive promise of Dr. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND THE WASHINGTON POST.LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD, THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE, THE PEN/OPEN BOOK AWARD, AND THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD at once a pitch-black comedy, a chilling horror story and an endlessly perceptive novel about the possible future of race in America.”-NPR “An incisive and necessary” (Roxane Gay) debut for fans of Get Out and Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, about a father’s obsessive quest to protect his son-even if it means turning him white
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