We Love You, Charlie Freeman: A Novel

Description

A FINALIST FOR THE 2016 CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE AND THE 2017 YOUNG LIONS AWARD

A terrifically auspicious debut. Janet Maslin, The New York Times

Smart, timely and powerful . . . A rich examination of Americas treatment of race, and the ways we attempt to discuss and confront it today. The Huffington Post

The Freeman family–Charles, Laurel, and their daughters, teenage Charlotte and nine-year-old Callie–have been invited to the Toneybee Institute to participate in a research experiment. They will live in an apartment on campus with Charlie, a young chimp abandoned by his mother. The Freemans were selected because they know sign language; they are supposed to teach it to Charlie and welcome him as a member of their family. But when Charlotte discovers the truth about the institutes history of questionable studies, the secrets of the past invade the present in devious ways.

The power of this shattering novel resides in Greenidges undeniable storytelling talents. What appears to be a story of mothers and daughters, of sisterhood put to the test, of adolescent love and grown-up misconduct, and of historys long reach, becomes a provocative and compelling exploration of Americas failure to find a language to talk about race.

A magnificently textured, vital, visceral feat of storytelling . . . [by] a sharp, poignant, extraordinary new voice of American literature. Ta Obreht, author of The Tigers Wife