Hangman -- Maya Binyam, Paperback

National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, Vulture, and BBC

An enthralling and original first novel about exile, diaspora, and the impossibility of Black refuge in America and beyond.

In the morning, I received a phone call and was told to board a flight. The arrangements had been made on my behalf. I packed no clothes, because my clothes had been packed for me. A car arrived to pick me up.

A man returns home to sub-Saharan Africa after twenty-six years in America. When he arrives, he finds that he doesn't recognize the country or anyone in it. Thankfully, someone recognizes him, a man who calls him brother--setting him on a quest to find his real brother, who is dying.

In Hangman, Maya Binyam tells the story of that search, and of the phantoms, guides, tricksters, bureaucrats, debtors, taxi drivers, relatives, and riddles that will lead to the truth.

This is an uncommonly assured debut: an existential journey; a tragic farce; a slapstick tragedy; and a strange, and strangely honest, story of one man's stubborn quest to find refuge--in this world and in the world that lies beyond it.

Author: Maya Binyam
Publisher: Picador USA
Published: 08/06/2024
Pages: 208
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.25h x 5.38w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781250338150

About the Author
Maya Binyam is the author of Hangman, which was named a 2024 National Book Foundation "5 under 35" honoree, received the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was longlisted for the Women's Prize. Her work has appeared in the Paris Review, the New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles.