Publisher's Synopsis
"Distant lovers. Shady friends. Racist strangers. Estranged parents. Insufferable bosses. Who says your twenties are fun? Julian Strickland is seemingly the lone Black man in the hipster dreamland of Portland, Oregon. To his friends, he's the coolest member of the scene: the soulful drummer from Chicago in an indie rock band that's just about to break through. But to himself, he's a sheltered Christian homeschool kid who used to write book reports on Leviticus. A virgin until the night of his marriage, divorced at twenty-four, he's still in disarray two years later - pretending to fit in, wondering if any of his relationships are real, estranged from his family, and struggling to reconcile his strict religious background. Then he meets Ida Blair, a Black painter at the start of a promising career. They begin a tentative romance, and Ida seems to offer Julian relief from his confusion. Until suddenly she stops responding to his texts. Th
