The Sexy Part of the Bible

Boof (Diary of a Lost Girl) spins surrealism, sci-fi, racial politics, feminism, religious debate, postcolonial theory, and more into a thought-provoking, suspenseful novel that manages to keep intriguing characters afloat in a roiling sea of crazy rhetoric. In the fictional nation of West Cassavaland, teenage Eternity watches an older European scientist die from drinking poison. This "tall Ron-Howard-as-Richie-Cunningham-from-Happy-Days" white man is her "true love," the man who took her virginity, her "Father." It turns out that he and Eternity's "mother" cloned her from the DNA of Orisha, an activist who was murdered by their community for urging young people to stop bleaching their skin. Initially blamed for her scientist "father's" death, Eternity flees to the West, where she becomes a supermodel and deals with memories of Orisha's life growing ever more vivid. Returning to West Cassavaland, she gets involved with King Sea Horse Twee, a rapper so popular that he runs for president. Eternity's mantra of incest-as-love is extremely troublesome, as are the depictions of skin bleaching, polygamy, domestic violence, and cloning that Boof (born in Sudan) laces throughout. Although sections feel rushed, there's a lot to ponder. (July)