They Tell Me of a Home

A young Black man makes a reluctant return to his rural southern roots in this “thrilling literary debut . . . [a] haunting story of the ties that bind” (Michael Eric Dyson).

With a doctorate in Black studies, twenty-eight-year-old Tommy Lee Tyson steps off the bus in Swamp Creek, Arkansas, the hometown he left as a teenager, vowing never to return. Yet fate has drawn him back to his rural origins as he seeks to understand himself and the black community that produced him.

His parents are seemingly indifferent to his return. But it's the discovery of his baby sister’s death—and her burial in the backyard—that nearly consumes him. And no one is willing to disclose the secret of her death.

Meanwhile, as Tommy’s elderly teacher approaches her own death, she asks him to take her place as the headmaster of Swamp Creek's one-room schoolhouse. Over the course of a single week, Tommy will discover truths about his family, his community, and his undeniable connection to rural Southern black folk and their ways.