Ms., A Must-Read Book
Cosmopolitan, A Best New Book of January
Nylon, A Best Book of the Month
Named a Most Anticipated Book by Elle, Goodreads, Write or Die, Electric Literature, Literary Hub, Lambda Literary Review, Bookshop, and LGBTQ Reads

Akúa is returning home to Jamaica for the first time in ten years. Her younger brother has died suddenly, and Akúa hopes to reconnect with her estranged older sister, Tamika. Over three fateful weeks, the sisters visit significant places from their childhood where Akúa spreads her brother’s ashes. But time spent with Tamika only seems to make apparent how different they are and how alone Akúa feels.

Then Akúa meets Jayda, a brash stripper who reveals a different side of Kingston. As the two women grow closer, Akúa is forced to confront the difficult reality of being gay in a deeply religious family, and what it means to be a gay woman in Jamaica. Her trip comes to a frenzied and dangerous end, but not without a glimmer of hope of how to be at peace with her sister—and herself.

By turns diasporic family saga, bildungsroman, and terse sexual awakening, Broughtupsy asks: What are we willing to do for family, and what are we willing to do to feel at home?

Named a "Writer to Watch" by CBC Books and Shondaland, CHRISTINA COOKE is the author of Broughtupsy – selected as a best book of 2024 by Elle and Debutiful as well as recommended reading by The Atlantic, Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan UK, LitHub, Electric Literature, and more. A Journey Prize winner and MacDowell fellow, she holds a Master of Arts from the University of New Brunswick and a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Born in Jamaica, Christina is now a Canadian citizen who splits her time between the Hudson Valley and New York City.

Christina Cooke's profile page

“This is a deft debut overflowing with emotion.” —Elle

"Cooke makes an assured debut … [She] successfully evokes the temerity and rebellious intelligence of Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse." — Publishers Weekly

“The idea of ‘going home’ is, for many members of the LGBTQ+ community, a complicated one...Cooke’s narration, at once poetic and conversational, lends Akúa’s story a sense of urgency and resonance.” —Vogue

"Broughtupsy … weaves effortlessly between present and past, showing—often at a single glance—historic events and their effect in the present. It’s a dizzying, compelling effect, and one which Cooke achieves with a deceptive ease … A powerful account of an attempt to find a place, both in the physical world, and deep within the self." — Toronto Star

"Descriptive and Imaginative debut … Broughtupsy considers the demands of family, identity, and culture, as well as the complex nature of belonging." — Literary Review of Canada

"The story builds to a fierce, then sweetly redemptive, climax. The voice of innocence, the violence, and the sibling dynamics of Cooke’s debut recall Justin Torres’ We the Animals (2011), also a queer coming-of-age story—but this blend of those elements is as unique as a thumbprint. Vivid, emotionally intense, and unafraid of the dark." — Kirkus

"Christina Cooke’s Broughtupsy follows in the tradition of novels that invite readers to step over the threshold and insist on fully realised selfhood in the personal space one occupies: an engaging and rewarding debut." — The Temz Review

“This debut novel delivers an atmospheric story . . . If your favorite movie is Moonlight and/or you’re a Justin Torres stan, Broughtupsy will wound and delight.” —Chicago Review of Books

"A moving coming-of-age story." — Booklist

"Cooke is excellent at showing the contrast between what gets said out loud, and the interior, unvoiced subtext … This novel is full of feelings." — British Columbia Review

"Cooke’s lush prose is poetic, but clear and restrained enough to maintain the momentum of the main plot, which moves along at a refreshingly brisk pace … For all its emotional weight, Broughtupsy refuses to settle for easy answers." — Plenitude

“Cooke’s vibrant debut novel is a queer coming-of-age story and a chronicle of diasporic rediscovery.” —The Atlantic