When They Tell You To Be Good

A TIME, BuzzFeed, Poets & Writers, Publishers Weekly, them, The Week, Book Riot, Philadelphia Inquirer, Book and Film Globe, and Debutiful Best Book of Fall Winner of the Hurston/Wright Crossover Award Prince Shakur’s debut memoir brilliantly mines his radicalization and self-realization through examinations of place, childhood, queer identity, and a history of uprisings. After immigrating from Jamaica to the United States, Prince Shakur’s family is rocked by the murder of Prince’s biological father in 1995. Behind the murder is a sordid family truth, scripted in the lines of a diary by an outlawed uncle hell-bent on avenging the murder of Prince’s father. As Shakur begins to unravel his family’s secrets, he must navigate the strenuous terrain of coming to terms with one’s inner self while confronting the steeped complexities of the Afro-diaspora. When They Tell You to Be Good charts Shakur’s political coming of age from closeted queer kid in a Jamaican family to radicalize