The Uproar

A “raw, tensely plotted, profound high-wire act of a book” (Téa Obreht) on the intricacies of marriage, class, and race, and just how far one man will go to protect his family—and himself. Sharif is a good person. He knows that he is good because he’s aware of the privilege that he holds as a white man. He knows he is good because he chose to be a social worker at a nonprofit in Brooklyn, scraping by in New York City. And he knows he is good because his wife, Adjoua, a progressive Black novelist, has always said so. But Sharif’s goodness doesn’t protect him and Adjoua against bad luck. In an emergency, when they must find a new home for Judy, their beloved, unruly, giant dog before the imminent birth of their immunocompromised daughter, a desperate Sharif leaves Judy in the care of Emmanuel, an undocumented Haitian immigrant Sharif met through his social services nonprofit. When Emmanuel agrees to take the dog, it is only a momentary relief. What begins as a dispute between the young couple and Emmanuel's teenage son soon draws both families into a maelstrom of unpredictable conflict.