People Like Us

**Two Black writers - with stories to tell, and some they'd rather forget.** One wins the big prize, gets the book tour, walks into the spotlight of global success. The other is about to walk into a place ripped apart by violence - a school that''s recently suffered a shooting - with only a speech to offer them. **Some stories are simple, and stay neatly in the lines.** This one wanders, bends time, breaks rules. This one has sea monsters, floating handguns and ridiculously tiny French cars. **Some stories are true.** This one is - mostly - made up. **Some people turn the page and move on.** Some people survive by forgetting. But those people? **They're not people like us.**

Set in

• ★
  Minnesota · United States

  mass-shooting university campus
  ★ primary
• North Carolina · United States

  characters hometown in flashbacks
• Milan · Italy

  narrator meets billionaire benefactor