'A beautifully expansive novel about race and class... Franklin's emotional and intellectual
range is vast... An exceptional debut' - Katie Kitamura author of Intimacies 'So smart so
moving so earned as soon as I finished I started reading it again' - Kaveh Akbar author of
Martyr! 'The precision and ecstasy of Rob Franklin's prose had me entranced. Great Black Hope
marks the arrival of a breathtakingly talented writer' - Megha Majumdar author of A Burning
'Great Black Hope will allow you to vicariously experience a sweltering summer in the city -
though this debut is much more than a simple tale of hedonism' - BBC Culture 'Perfectly
captures the heady atmosphere of a New York summer' - Dazed 'A new voice in fiction to be
reckoned with' Harper's Bazaar 'Best Books of 2025' 'A book about New York that's part love
letter part reckoning' - Guardian 'Gripping' - Daily Mail An arrest for cocaine possession
in the Hamptons on the last day of a sweltering summer leaves Smith a young Black queer
graduate in a state of turmoil. Pulled into the court system and mandated treatment he finds
himself in an absurd but dangerous situation: his class protects him but his race does not. It
is just weeks after the death of his beloved roommate Elle a glamorous member of the Black
elite and he is still reeling from the tabloid spectacle - as well as the lingering question
of how well he really knew his closest friend and what happened to her the night she died.
When he flees to his hometown of Atlanta and generations of his family of doctors and college
presidents and lawyers - the weight of expectations haunts him. Then Carolyn the closest
friend he has left goes off the rails Smith returns to New York only to lose himself in his
old life drawn back into the city's underworld. Will his search for the truth about Elle cost
him his freedom and his future? Smith goes on a dizzying journey through the New York City
nightlife circuit anonymous recovery rooms Atlanta's Black society set police investigations
and courtroom dramas and a circle of friends coming of age in a new era. Great Black Hope is a
propulsive glittering story about what it means to exist between worlds to be upwardly mobile
yet spiralling downward and how to find a way back to hope.
