Everywhere You Don't Belong by Gabriel Bump, 264 pages After his parents abandon him, Claude lives with his grandmother (who everybody just calls Grandma) in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood. It's a rough area, and when an unarmed kid is shot by the police just down the street from Claude's house, tensions get even worse. The local gang, the Redbelters, starts fighting the SWAT team, and riots ensue. But Claude continues drifting along, as everything happens around him, as he worries that he'll be abandoned again by the few people he cares about, as he makes vague plans for the future.
In his debut novel, Bump has created a sharp, witty, insightful novel with the most realistic protagonist I've read in ages. I can't wait to see what else Bump has in store for us.
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