‘A thousand-miles-an-hour hoot.’ Esquire
‘Hilarious…and immensely moving.’ The New Yorker
‘A blast of satirical heat from the talented heart of black American life.’ New York Times
White Boy Shuffle is Man Booker-winner Paul Beatty’s electrifying debut novel about teenage-surf-bum Gunnar Kaufman who is forced to wise up when his mother moves from suburban Santa Monica to urban West Los Angeles. There, he begins to undergo a startling transformation from neighbourhood outcast to basketball superstar, and eventually to reluctant messiah of a ‘divided, downtrodden people’.
A bombastic coming-of-age novel that has the uncanny ability to make readers want to laugh and cry at the same time, Beatty mingles horrific reality with wild fancy in this outlandish, laugh-out-loud funny and poignant vision of contemporary America.