Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin

“The precision and ecstasy of Rob Franklin’s prose had me entranced. Great Black Hope marks the arrival of a breathtakingly talented writer.” Megha Majumdar, New York Times bestselling author of A Burning

An arrest for cocaine possession in the Hamptons on the last day of a sweltering summer leaves Smith, a young Black Queer graduate, in a state of turmoil. He finds himself in an absurd but dangerous situation: his class protects him but his race does not. Just weeks before, his beloved roommate Elle died and he is still reeling. How well did he know his closest friend and what really happened to her the night she disappeared? Will his search for the truth cost him his freedom and his future?

Fleeing to his hometown of Atlanta and the generations of his family who are doctors and college presidents and lawyers, Smith is haunted by the weight of expectation. When Carolyn, the closest friend he has left, goes off the rails he must return to New York only to lose himself in his old life, drawn back into the city’s underworld.

Great Black Hope is a propulsive, glittering story about what it means to exist between worlds, to be upwardly mobile yet spiralling downward, and, ultimately, how to find a way back to hope.

‘Great Black Hope is at once a novel of crime – with a gripping pace, propelled by a question that needs answering -and a timeless coming of age story’ – RUMAAN ALAM, bestselling author of LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND

‘Rob Franklin’s prose is rich, mesmerising, and utterly gorgeous’ – LEILA MOTTLEY, author of NIGHTCRAWLING

A gripping, elegant debut novel about a young Black man caught between worlds of race and class, glamour and tragedy, a friend’s mysterious death and his own arrest, from an electrifying new voice.

About the Author: Born and raised in Atlanta, Rob Franklin is a writer of fiction and poetry, and a cofounder of Art for Black Lives. A Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and finalist for the New England Review Emerging Writer Award, he has published work in New England Review, Prairie Schooner, and The Rumpus among others. Franklin lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches writing at the School of Visual Arts. Great Black Hope is his first novel.

19 Jun 2025
 

Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin ISBN 9781398539938