After seeing a girl raped and becoming obsessed with her, sixteen-year-old Thulani finds motivation to move beyond his interest in his pigeons and his grief over his mother's death.

"In this moving debut novel, two estranged siblings must set aside their differences to deal with their mother's death and her hidden past--a journey of discovery that takes them from the Caribbean to London to California and ends with her famous black cake. In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett's death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a traditional Caribbean black cake, made from a family recipe with...

Aspiring screenwriter Altuna Rashad has big plans for the last summer before she leaves Ontario, California, for the college in Georgia, the most important of which is securing the loving attention of her crush, Tristan Dangerfield; however she also has to get out from the obsessive over-protectiveness of her older brother, Robby, who mocks their family's devotion to the old Caribbean traditions and superstitions, while grieving the loss of his life...