Home Bound: An Uprooted Daughter’s Reflections on Belonging

Bee, a consumer-protection lawyer and essayist, traces her diffuse family tree in this tender and captivating exploration of the meaning of home. Born in 1988 Cameroon and adopted by her aunt (referred to throughout as “mom”) soon after, the author is the only one of her father’s children to carry his last name, despite being estranged from him since birth. In vivid recreated diary entries, Bee recounts her move with her mother to Lyon, France, in the early 1990s, the racialized volatility that rocked their housing complex, and their subsequent move to London, where, for a time, they were homeless. Bee moved to Nevada at age 13 to be nearer relatives, as described in a chapter of urgent numbered fragments that follows Bee through American high school, early socioeconomic reckonings, evangelical Christianity, and her marriage at age 19. After graduating from Harvard Law and getting a divorce, Bee confronted what it means to exist within American racial dynamics: “I was not African American, but lived under blackness in this country.” Rather than let displacement define her, though, Bee draws strength and insight from her adversities. Of her name, she writes, “If I am to never feel completely at home in it, then I must make a new home of it.” What emerges is a rich and enthralling story of finding oneself outside of the bounds of borders and beliefs. This offers radiant hope in the face of darkness. (Oct.)