Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self

The first work from a star of her generation, an electric debut story collection about mixed-race and African-American teenagers, women, and men struggling to find a place in their families and communities.

A college student's unplanned pregnancy forces her to confront her feelings of resentment toward her more privileged classmates. A father’s misguided attempt to rescue a gift for his adult daughter magnifies all he doesn’t know about her. And two teenage girls’ flirt with adulthood leads to disastrous consequences.

Based in a world where inequality is reality, but where the shifting terrain of adolescence and family are the most complicating forces, Evans’ characters are wry, wise and utterly original. Striking in their emotional immediacy, the electrifying, prize-winning stories in BeforeYou Suffocate Your Own Fool Selfoffer a fresh perspective on race and class in contemporary America.

'Knife-sharp wit and tender but unflinching eye' — V.V. Ganeshananthan, author of Love Marriage

'Fiercely independent, all of Evans’s characters struggle for a place in a world intent of fencing them out.' — New York Times Book Review