{"product_id":"dream-country-isbn-9780735231689","title":"Dream Country","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe heartbreaking story of five generations of young people from a single African-and-American family pursuing an elusive dream of freedom.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Gut wrenching and incredible.”— Sabaa Tahir #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eAn Ember in the Ashes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This novel is a remarkable achievement.\"—Kelly Barnhill, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author and Newbery medalist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Beautifully epic.\"—Ibi Zoboi, author\u003ci\u003e American Street \u003c\/i\u003eand National Book Award finalist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eDream Country \u003c\/i\u003ebegins in suburban Minneapolis at the moment when seventeen-year-old Kollie Flomo begins to crack under the strain of his life as a Liberian refugee. He's exhausted by being at once too black and not black enough for his African American peers and worn down by the expectations of his own Liberian family and community. When his frustration finally spills into violence and his parents send him back to Monrovia to reform school, the story shifts. Like Kollie, readers travel back to Liberia, but also back in time, to the early twentieth century and the point of view of Togar Somah, an eighteen-year-old indigenous Liberian on the run from government militias that would force him to work the plantations of the Congo people, descendants of the African American slaves who colonized Liberia almost a century earlier. When Togar's section draws to a shocking close, the novel jumps again, back to America in 1827, to the children of Yasmine Wright, who leave a Virginia plantation with their mother for Liberia, where they're promised freedom and a chance at self-determination by the American Colonization Society. The Wrights begin their section by fleeing the whip and by its close, they are then the ones who wield it. With each new section, the novel uncovers fresh hope and resonating heartbreak, all based on historical fact. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eDream Country,\u003c\/i\u003e Shannon Gibney spins a riveting tale of the nightmarish spiral of death and exile connecting America and Africa, and of how one determined young dreamer tries to break free and gain control of her destiny.\"\u003ci\u003eDream Country \u003c\/i\u003eis \u003cb\u003egut wrenching and incredible\u003c\/b\u003e.”—Sabaa Tahir, #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eAn Ember in the Ashes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This story, both sprawling and intimate by turns, is a miracle of construction, and Gibney fits its diasporic pieces the way a master should—with a keen eye, an open heart, a courageous spirit, and a sharp, sharp needle.\u003cb\u003e This novel is a remarkable achievement.\"\u003c\/b\u003e—Kelly Barnhill, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author and Newbery Medalist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Gibney has masterfully woven together the histories of America and Africa through the multigenerational journeys of young people in search of home and self. \u003cb\u003eBeautifully epic, timely, and outstanding in its breadth and scope\u003c\/b\u003e, this story truly conveys what it means to be African American.\"—Ibi Zoboi, author of \u003ci\u003eAmerican Street,\u003c\/i\u003e National Book Award Finalist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e★\"A \u003cb\u003enecessary\u003c\/b\u003e reckoning.\"—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews,\u003c\/i\u003e starred\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e★\"Gibney blesses the reader with \u003cb\u003ea marvelous literary tapestry\u003c\/b\u003e of family, sacrifice, and dreams examining the lingering effects of slavery and racism in both the U.S. and Liberia. This powerful novel demonstrates how nonlinear history can be, ways the present is a consequence of the past, and that, though traumatized people can sometimes hurt others when trying to heal themselves, there’s nevertheless strength in hope that can keep us moving forward.\"—\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e, starred\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e★\"[H]ighlights the inconsistencies between the beliefs a country projects to the world at large and the realities experienced by immigrants.... \u003cb\u003eAn excellent choice.\"\u003c\/b\u003e—\u003ci\u003eSLJ\u003c\/i\u003e, starred \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e★\"With \u003cb\u003eriveting, lyrical prose\u003c\/b\u003e, Gibney’s accomplished novel explores universal themes of home, family, power struggles, and endurance while demonstrating the liberating power of storytelling.—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, starred \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e★\"[A]lthough each story could exist on its own to great effect, the ways they inform one another are\u003cb\u003e historically grand and intimately detailed\u003c\/b\u003e.\"—\u003ci\u003eBCCB\u003c\/i\u003e, starred\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eDream Country\u003c\/i\u003e asks big questions and exposes new histories \u003c\/b\u003eas it digs into the complexities of what Gibney calls 'the ongoing, spiraling history of the African-African American encounter'.\"—Minneapolis \u003ci\u003eStar Tribune\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A smart, many layered, and sometimes challenging book for smart people.”—St. Paul \u003ci\u003ePioneer Press \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A vast and epic tale that explores racism, slavery, war, refugees, immigration, and what it means to be African-American as a whole.”—Bustle\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Powerful, educational, and eye-opening.\"—Hello Giggles\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[A]n illumination of how humans end up treating each other cruelly and how they resist.\"—\u003ci\u003eThe Horn Book\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Shannon Gibney has taken history and imagination and gelled them into a time machine. Here is tragedy and survival, struggle and love, rendered with precision and an empathy born of a writer who has experienced the ‘dream-loop’ of history. Sometimes a story can't promise healing, or neat closure. \u003cb\u003eSometimes a story, even a magical one like this, is the necessary reopening of a wound.\u003c\/b\u003e” —Bao Phi, award winning author of \u003ci\u003eA Different Pond \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThousand Star Hotel\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDream Country \u003c\/i\u003eis a gift of storytelling, of culture, and of understanding for an America that needs this book desperately. \u003c\/b\u003eThrough stories woven of manhood and humanity, of growing up and growing into oneself, Gibney shows us how the worlds between us grow wider even as our world grows smaller. She takes us through time and space to find the heart of an imperfect home.\"—Kao Kalia Yang, award winning author of \u003ci\u003eThe Latehomecomer\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Dream Country\u003c\/i\u003e is not just the story that needed to be told. In both its specificity and its universality, \u003cb\u003eShannon Gibney’s majestic text is the conversation that we needed to have\u003c\/b\u003e. It is the multiple truths that we needed to explore. One certain way to ensure more powerful tomorrows is to fill our todays with words and ideas like hers.”—Cornelius Minor, teacher and author of \u003ci\u003eWe Got This: Equity, Access, and the Quest to Be Who Our Students Need Us to Be\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Gibney’s complex look at one family, told through a wide scope, is moving and unlike anything I have ever read before in YA. \u003cb\u003eThis is one of the best books I’ve read this year.\u003c\/b\u003e Don’t miss it.—Teen Librarian Toolbox \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Truly a tour de force \u003c\/b\u003eand an outstanding example of what young adult literature can do when it stretches and takes risks and is in the talented, careful, passionate hands of a master writer.\"—Angie Manfredi, Nerdy Book Club \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Minnesota Book Award\u003cbr\u003eA Bank Street College Best Book of the Year\u003cbr\u003eA KARE 11 Sunrisers Bookclub Selection\u003cbr\u003eA New York Public Library Best Book of the Year\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e Best YA Historical Fiction of the Year\u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eBulletin of the Center for Children's Books\u003c\/i\u003e Blue Ribbon Book\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eCooperative Children’s Book Center Choices List\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNerdy Book Club Award Winner\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eShannon Gibney is an author and university professor. Her novel \u003ci\u003eSee No Color,\u003c\/i\u003e drawn from her life as a transracial adoptee, was hailed by \u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e as \"an exceptionally accomplished debut\" and by \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly \u003c\/i\u003eas \"an unflinching look at the complexities of racial identity.\" Her essay \"Fear of a Black Mother\" appears in the anthology \u003ci\u003eA Good Time for the Truth.\u003c\/i\u003e Her sophomore novel,\u003ci\u003e Dream Country, \u003c\/i\u003ereceived five starred reviews and earned her a second Minnesota Book Award. She lives with her two Liberian-American children in Minneapolis, Minnesota. www.shannongibney.com and @gibneyshannon***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected copy proof*** \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCopyright © 2018 Shannon Gibney\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor me, the rupture was the story. —Saidiya Hartman\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLet an ocean divide the white man from the man of color. —Thomas Jefferson\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart I:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCHAPTER ONE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e2008, Brooklyn Center, Minnesota\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKOLLIE FLOMO WAS \u003ci\u003eDONE\u003c\/i\u003e. All he wanted was a moment’s peace and quiet.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Fucking motherfuckers. No fucking culture-menh.” He echoed his mother’s words under his breath as he wiped the spit from the back of his neck. He searched the hallway for the spitter—probably the same person who’d cough shouted, “Jungle nigger.” When he saw no obvious culprit, he gave up, walked into geometry, and found his place beside Abraham. His younger sister, Angel, sat in the back of the room, her textbook already open to the appropriate chapter, her pencil resting on a blank notebook page. Kollie grimaced. It was annoying to be in the same class, but they had a tacit agreement to ignore each other. So far, she was holding up her end of the bargain, scanning the room with a bored look on her face, pretending not to see him.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Ya hello,” he said to Abraham absently.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Good morning, Comrade,” Abraham replied, far too brightly. “You exactly seven minutes late-oh.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe two of them had lived three houses down from each other since the sixth grade. Some days, though, Kollie wondered if he even liked Abraham.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Six. I had to urinate oh,” Kollie said. He took out his phone. No new texts. He threw his book on the table and then slouched down in his chair.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the front of the room, Mrs. Walker turned around from the blackboard, startled by the noise. Kollie knew that she wouldn’t do anything. She smiled at him nervously. Kollie nodded at her, then pulled his ball cap down over his eyes, how he liked it. She faced the blackboard again and continued writing some theorem that was basically illegible to him and probably made perfect sense to Fake-Ass Angel. He didn’t know why he even bothered with this class. His daddy was buying him a basement club in Crystal, where he and his friends could spin the latest tracks for their friends and relatives, and make plenty of cash. He could almost hear Big Boi’s dope lyrics skipping over the beat like a stone across cracked sidewalk.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Sonja say she finished with Clark now,” whispered Abraham, his pencil diligently moving across the paper.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKollie pretended not to care, but his palms began to sweat. “Eh?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSonja was the flyest girl in school, and she was into both black and African guys, which was pretty rare for a black girl. Kollie had heard that her father was Kenyan.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Definitely,” whispered Abraham.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere was something about Sonja—maybe the way she smelled like clean soap, or the way her medium-sized, perky breasts peeked out of her T-shirts, or maybe even her loud laugh—but Kollie had a huge crush on her. He had been trying to get up the nerve to talk to her for weeks, but she always seemed to be surrounded by so many people. His own girlfriend, Lovie, was always around, too.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Yes,” said Abraham. “You should get her-oh. That big jue not be free for long now.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Just like that?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAbraham looked at him sideways. “Just like that, Comrade. Why not?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKollie thought about it for a moment: \u003ci\u003eWhy not? \u003c\/i\u003eHe grimaced. For starters, Clark, Sonja’s now ex-boyfriend, had recently beat the shit out of Hassan Mohammed, who had four inches and thirty pounds on Kollie.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhy y’all jungle animals here, anyway? \u003c\/i\u003e(Hassan wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his hand while Clark stared down at him.) \u003ci\u003eMinnesota’s too cold for y’all. Can’t run around here butt naked, like, Owwwwoooo! \u003c\/i\u003e(Accompanied by monkey-like gestures and noises.) \u003ci\u003eAdmit it: It’d be better to get back to that one tree y’all got in your little African village, the one that throws enough shade to cover your small little dicks. Oh yeah, I heard about that—your secret’s out. They took all the big-dicked dudes outta Africa and brought them here . . . and left all you small-dicked niggers to satisfy\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eyour poor-ass women there. Which would be why the ladies love us. \u003c\/i\u003e(The black guys were whooping and hollering by this point.) \u003ci\u003eAnd why they steady running from you fake-ass Negroes. \u003c\/i\u003e(Jake Evans, the varsity quarterback, was clapping and laughing with his friends, like they were watching the Super Bowl or something. And all the teachers and lunch monitors were pretending that nothing was going on, like usual. Eventually someone handed Hassan a wad of napkins to clean himself up.)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Let me think about it-oh,” Kollie said, as casually as he could muster.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAbraham laughed. “Think all you want-menh. Just don’t be surprised if someone else gets her while you doing all that thinking.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKollie pounded the controller as fast as he could, but his zombie’s bazooka refused to fire.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSitting to his right, Gabriel laughed. “Team Plants ’bout to eat you alive, my brother.” He snickered.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Eeh-menh! What the fuck is wrong with your console?” Kollie whined. What he really wanted to do was throw it across the room, but he didn’t want Gabriel’s parents to come down from their Bible study group. They had already threatened to throw away the PlayStation last week after a five-hour, seven-player odyssey of \u003ci\u003eDark Souls II \u003c\/i\u003egot a little too rowdy. And before that, the boys’ gaming sessions had earned them exile in the basement. The steady stream of profanity did not go well with the Kamara family living room’s fifty-five-inch 4K OLED TV, with its clear- plastic-covered leather love seat and recliner, or with the framed poster of a white Jesus smiling down on it all.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Gabe, you so corny, man,” Tetee said, perched atop the back of an old couch. He stuffed a handful of Doritos in his mouth.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Yeah, but at least I don’t suck,” Gabe said, firing a round into Kollie’s staggering masses and blowing off most of their heads.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Fuck you, asshole,” Kollie said. “The fact is, this bitch-ass \u003ci\u003egame \u003c\/i\u003eis some motherfucking bullshit.” Sometimes he marveled at how easily swear words rolled off his tongue now. When he had first come to America, every time he had even heard a swear word he had jumped. Now he couldn’t even imagine speaking English without them. They were like ketchup on a hamburger or pepper in soup—they gave everything flavor.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Spoken like a true loser,” said Gabriel.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Whatever, bitch.” Kollie pounded the X button on his controller until his finger hurt, but still his rocket launcher refused to reload fast enough. “Fuck!”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese words had power when he used them, like little bombs going off all around. When he was ten, he hadn’t understood that, hadn’t gotten why the black boys used them every other word. But now he was sixteen.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Yes! Who’s a bitch now?” Gabriel threw his hands in the air. Kollie resisted the urge to punch him. He knew Gabe well enough by now to know that he was only playing, that this was part of the fun of gaming with his crew. Still, his belly felt raw. Things had been bothering him lately that he knew shouldn’t, but somehow, he couldn’t help it. He dropped the controller into his lap.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003ci\u003ePlants vs. Zombies\u003c\/i\u003e, who comes up with that pussy shit? Just stupid-oh, a flower running around with a pea- shooter, trying to eliminate zombies. What kind of faggot game is that-menh? Americans can be some stupid-ass people-oh,” said Kollie.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTetee leaned down and put a hand on his shoulder. “Relax, Comrade.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“And then you got to be even stupider to actually \u003ci\u003ebuy \u003c\/i\u003ethe fucking game,” Kollie continued, undaunted. “My man, would you plead temporary insanity was what made you buy this piece of shit?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGabe’s suppression-fire specialist massacred the last of Kollie’s zombies, and the big red game over flashed across the screen. “I wouldn’t plead shit, Comrade My Bitch,” said Gabe. He had been in the U.S. since he was four, so it was easy to mistake him for a regular black guy. “What I would do is tell you to get used to getting your ass kicked by a damn \u003ci\u003eplant\u003c\/i\u003e.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTetee laughed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKollie’s stomach still hurt, and his fist was now screaming to connect with Gabe’s jaw. He knew that Gabe had no idea, that he had really meant nothing by it this was all part of regular gamer trash talk. But Kollie couldn’t shake the idea that it would feel so \u003ci\u003egood \u003c\/i\u003eto hit him, to hit anybody.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTetee, who had lived next to Kollie in Red Light the year before the war came to Monrovia, squeezed his shoulder again. “Relax, Comrade. It’s just a game-menh.” Kollie sighed and closed his eyes. An image of his family and Tetee’s huddled together in a small church auditorium while rocket launchers exploded into the night flashed before his eyes, and then he pushed it aside. In- stead, he imagined himself kissing Sonja, her soft lips covering his. His breath became deeper, more regular, and he began to feel like himself again. “My man, put down the chips and play this rebel bitch already.” Kollie stood up and handed the controller to Tetee. “Motherfucker, you ’bout to get shown how plants are put down in Red Light.” Kollie was both surprised and encouraged that he could manage a smile.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTetee laughed and moved to sit beside Gabe.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGabe stood too, and then pulled his jeans down below his butt, exaggerating the way the black dudes wore them at Brooklyn Center. Then he started jumping around, making an AK-47 out of his hands. “Try me, bitches. Do it. Niggas call me General Saggy Pants, ’cause my Small Boys kill Big Men in fancy suit-oh,” he said. “My AK shoot your zombie dead with my black magic peas!” Gabe said now, prancing around like a pony on amphetamines. Both Kollie and Tetee collapsed in laughter on the floor.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd just like that, everything was fine again.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCHAPTER TWO\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“WHAT THE HELL’S WRONG with you, Kollie? I’m only trying to help.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe air was damp and cold the next morning, as Kollie and his sister waited for their bus to school. Angel had asked him if he needed to copy yesterday’s geometry homework, and he’d responded by putting on his headphones and pulling up his hood.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe sun was just coming up over the horizon, and languid heat might roll up behind it or maybe it would snow. For the millionth time, Kollie thought that he would never understand the weather in this country. There was no rhyme or reason to it, which was why he always opted to wear jeans and a hoodie. He could be sure to be more comfortable than uncomfortable during the day, no matter what happened.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAngel called the outfit his “uniform”—or his “armor” if she was trying to piss him off. He never bothered to tell her that if anything was armor, it was his headphones. “Here comes your purse,” Angel said as Lovie rounded the corner on the other end of the block.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Handbag,” he said, and then he sighed. Why could Angel never quite get Liberian idioms right? Their mother called anyone, especially children, who hung around someone too much a “handbag,” which was how Angel saw Lovie.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Whatever. Fuck you, Kollie,” Angel said, and put in her earbuds. The fact that Lovie was Kollie’s girlfriend irritated his sister so much that Kollie actually noticed. Actually Angel had introduced Lovie to Kollie, and the two girls used to be close, until Kollie and Lovie started dating.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Good morning, Sweetie,” Lovie said as she neared the stop. She was wearing tight jeans that showed off her wide hips and substantial butt, and a bright white T-shirt with sparkles. Lip gloss and a new bobbed wig completed the look.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Good morning-oh.” Kollie pushed down his hood and headphones and forced himself to smile at her. They had been together three months and he was tired of her, but didn’t know how to tell her. And he knew he couldn’t get away with ignoring her like he did Angel. Like the rest of his life, it seemed easier to ride it out until something better came along. Something like Sonja.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Yeah, hello, ma,” Lovie said to his sister. Unlike Angel, Liberian English expressions—like calling all female acquaintances “ma”— came to Lovie without a second thought.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Yeah, good morning,” Angel answered back, then deliberately looked away from her.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLovie turned back to him. “How everything? What news? You good?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Yeah, fine,” Kollie said.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLovie looked at Kollie for a second, like she was going to ask if he was okay again, and he wished more than anything he could put his headphones back on. But then she smiled and dug something out of her backpack. “Lowell said this top-of-the-line-oh.” It was a Bose Bluetooth speaker. Her older brother worked at Best Buy, and often got special deals on merchandise. Lovie had a small gap between her front teeth that he had always found endearing, especially when she smiled shyly like she was doing now. “I got it cheap-cheap,” she said. “I knew when I saw it, it was perfect for your room-oh.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis other speakers had busted last week, probably from too much use. He had to have his music pumping whenever he was home, no matter what he was doing. It was just that simple.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“You my black diamond-oh,” he said, and he almost meant it. He had had two other girlfriends before Lovie, and none of them did half the stuff for him that she did. She cooked him \u003ci\u003eboth \u003c\/i\u003eburgers and bean soup with fish and cow, helped him with his homework on occasion, and had even cleaned his room once. Lovie didn’t freak out about sex, either, and was pretty much down for whatever. She was a good church girl, showed up every Sunday with her family, and memorized line and verse, but the meaning—especially the dire warnings about the effects of fornication on the soul—seemed to go in one ear and out the other. Which Kollie knew he ought to appreciate. Lovie leaned over to give him a quick kiss on the lips, and he let her.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAngel snickered beside them. Kollie knew she thought all of this was nonsense, that Lovie was wasting her time and energy on him. Angel called herself \u003ci\u003ea feminist\u003c\/i\u003e, which as far as Kollie could tell meant that she hated men but wanted a penis. She certainly hated their father enough.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe bus rumbled in the distance. Kollie sighed at the thought of another day at school. Lovie was texting, so he put in his headphones and started pumping the P-Square. The bus stopped, Angel got on, then Lovie, then him. Lovie expected him to sit by her during the ten-minute ride to school.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Hey, bro, wassup?” Saah said as he walked by the first front seats. He held out his hand, and Kollie slapped it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Yo, wassup, Comrade?” Kollie said back, dropping his headphones to his neck but leaving the P-Square playing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“How everything, Comrade?” Mardia asked, seated next to Saah.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Yeah, fine,” Kollie answered, taking a seat behind them, next to Lovie. Mardia and Saah lived a few blocks west of him, and played with him on the soccer team. Their mothers also frequently cooked large platters of Liberian food together for community gatherings, either at their houses or at church.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The weekend good-oh,” Mardia said as the bus pulled away from the curb. “I don’t know why it need to end with this school shit.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKollie smiled wryly.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSaah smacked his friend lightly on the arm. “Man, the weekend been done for a whole day now. Today Tuesday, Mardia.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMardia hit back. “I know that. I just talking about how there never enough time in this country to \u003ci\u003erelax-oh. \u003c\/i\u003eNo wonder the people so wack.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKollie shook his head. Mardia was right, of course. Everyone here worked all the time and went to school when they weren’t working. All the adults, anyway. The Liberians threw their own parties on the weekends, which started at ten and lasted until three or four in the morning, but then they had to get up a few hours later for church or work wiping old white people’s butts at the nursing home. Up ahead, the gray institutional face of Brooklyn Center High School got larger and larger in the front windshield. It looked like a prison, with its blank concrete walls and tiny windows.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Yo, Comrade, how you doing-oh?” A teasing voice boomed from behind them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKollie felt his fist tighten.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Yes, very well, Comrade. ’Cept the shit I got for lunch came out of my mother’s asshole-oh before she put it in my lunchbox,” the voice continued.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSomeone snickered.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis was how it was most mornings, riding in with the black kids who sat in the very back of the bus, smacking their gum and talking shit about everyone, like they owned the whole fucking vehicle. The guys had durags covering their heads, and the sickest Nikes on their feet—Kollie had even seen a few of them with the new LeBron Soldier Xs. \u003ci\u003eDon’t concern yourself with them, \u003c\/i\u003ehis mother had told him since the very first day they had seen the black Americans in the neighborhood. \u003ci\u003eThey are not serious, and they don’t have culture. That is why they act that way.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Seriously, did y’all smell that rank green shit Saah brought out at lunch yesterday? I swear I saw a fish head in it. A fucking fish head, y’all! Isn’t that, like, a violation of state health laws or something?”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMore laughing. One of them was almost on the floor, he was laughing so hard. The old white dude who drove the bus was watching them in his mirror, smiling.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Nigga, you wrong for that. You just wrong.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSaah looked from Kollie to Mardia and shook his head. \u003ci\u003eIt’s not worth it\u003c\/i\u003e, is what that meant.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe bus pulled into the school parking lot, behind a row of others. Kollie felt sick. He couldn’t wait to get off.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I’m serious, man. That shit was \u003ci\u003edisgusting\u003c\/i\u003e. Take that African shit back, ’cause we eat \u003ci\u003ereal \u003c\/i\u003efood that ain’t been taken from the dumpster here. For real.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe bus driver pulled the brakes and then opened the doors. Everyone stood up and started filing out.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKollie closed his eyes. \u003ci\u003eThey have no culture-oh\u003c\/i\u003e, he could hear his mom saying again.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eClark slapped Kollie lightly on the back of his head as he walked past him. Kollie jumped.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Seriously, though. What the fuck is wrong with y’all? How can you eat that greasy, stank soup every day? Don’t it make you wanna vomit?” he said, turning to look straight at Kollie.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeside him, Lovie grabbed his arm. Kollie looked back at her, and she gave him a muted smile. He knew what she was trying to do. Even though he resented it, he relaxed his fist, which had been steadily rising to his chest.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Pussy,” Clark said as he walked away.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303385452773,"sku":"NP9780735231689","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780735231689.jpg?v=1767725688","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/dream-country-isbn-9780735231689","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}