In John Vercher's haunting tale, a biracial father, reeling from his teenage son Malcolm's death, embarks on a journey south to claim his maternal grandfather's land. This seemingly simple inheritance unravels into a fever dream. Structured as an ongoing dialogue with his deceased child, the narrative follows the protagonist's descent as he grapples with a faltering writing career and precarious teaching position, all while unearthing buried truths about his ancestry.

Through a blend of magical realism and psychological intensity, Vercher creates a world where reality and imagination blur, populated by characters who reflect society's gaze and the protagonist's fractured self-image. His unnerving quest for healing, rendered in prose and dark humor, delivers a powerful meditation on racial identity, fatherhood, and inheritance. Readers who appreciate Jesmyn Ward's unflinching family sagas and Colson Whitehead's genre-bending narratives will be captivated by this haunting exploration of grief and generational trauma.