From Pulitzer Prizeâwinning author Oscar Hijuelos comes a riveting young adult novel set in the late 1960s about a haunting choice and an unforgettable journey of identity, misidentity, and all that we take with us when we run away.
He didnât say good-bye. He didnât leave a phone number. And he didnât plan on coming backâever.
Fifteen-year-old Rico Fuentes has had enough of life in Harlem, where his fair complexionâinherited from an Irish grandfatherâkeeps him caught between two cultures without belonging to either. He pours his outsider feelings into a comic book Dark Dude, with his friend Jimmy illustrating. But when Gilberto, whoâs always looked out for Rico, moves to Wisconsin and Jimmy loses himself to an insidious habit, Rico decides enough is enough.
With Jimmy in tow, Rico runs away to the Midwest in search of Gilberto. The heavily white community feels worlds away from Harlem, and for the first time, Rico sees what itâs like to blend inâno longer the âdark dudeâ or the punching bag for the whole neighborhood. But the less energy Rico needs to put into proving heâs Latino, the less he feels like one. And the more he gets to know the people around him, the more itâs clear that a change in location doesnât change human natureâand that thereâs no such thing as a perfect community.
Faced with the truth that there are things that canât be cut loose or forgotten, things that keep him from ever having an ordinary white kidâs life, Rico must decide whether he can make a home in the place he ran toâŚor the one he ran from.