Backflash

Overwhelmed with grief over the death of his mother, shamed by his failures in marriage and fatherhood, and burdened by massive debt, Devin’s life is spiraling out of control.

That is, until he discovers the impossible: nostalgia is his superpower.

With a random touch of family memorabilia, he can mentally travel back in time, reliving the best moments of his past while finding relief from the present.

With his mother gone, Devin can now investigate her greatest secret: the identity of the father he never knew. But the more Devin "backflashes" into time, the faster his present life falls apart. On this hunt for a truth that was never supposed to come to light, Devin must come to terms with his past if he wants any chance at a future.

By Mat Johnson, the author of Pym, Loving Day, and Incognegro,  Backflash is a riveting literary graphic novel thriller laced with sly humor and raw emotion that explores time travel in wild and un-predictable ways.''A talented writer of both fiction and creative non-fiction, Johnson's publications have established himself as an important new voice in the African-American tradition.''—Walter MosleyMat Johnson is a novelist who sometimes writes other things. He is the author of the novels Pym, Drop, and Hunting in Harlem, the nonfiction novella The Great Negro Plot, and the comic books Incognegro and Dark Rain. He is a recipient of the United States Artist James Baldwin Fellowship, The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. He is a faculty member at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.