I just finished reading Jonathan Escoffery ‘s first novel, If I Survive You. Reggae Month moments stole much of my reading time and lengthened my immersion in this stirring work. Growing up Jamaican in Jamaica always seemed full of twists and turns. I never thought much about growing up elsewhere and the convoluted pathways to identity that would be complicated by race, skin colour, hair texture, language, and livity that overtake so many. Yes, I’ve read many diasporic reflections. But Escoffrey’s reflections in a timeline that resonates because it is so familiar, one in which I too live/d, bring these convoluted pathways of identity, belonging, and family, home with so much force in his interwoven narratives. I think, in the end, it is the almost pure simplicity of his prescient looking backwards through complicated relationships and interwoven lives that gets me. To move forward he says, “Forgive yourselves”. IISY is a great read. Get a copy. Read it. Enjoy it.