In this gripping and evocative story collection, the critically acclaimed author of The Rib King and The Talented Ribkins explores the lives and relationships of a group of Black people, illuminating a wide range of political, social, and cultural issues.“Fiercely intelligent, warm in their own way, and absolutely absorbing. . . . Excellent excellent excellent.”—Roxane Gay“Ladee Hubbard is a true original, and this book is a unique beauty.”—Mary Gaitskill

The twelve gripping stories in Ladee Hubbard’s The Last Suspicious Holdout deftly chronicle poignant moments in the lives of an African American community located in a “sliver of southern suburbia.” The stories are set between 1992 and 2007, a period which lauded the emergence of a new Black middle class even as images of “welfare queens,” “super predators,” and “crack babies” abounded in the media. In “False Cognates,” a formerly incarcerated attorney struggles with raising the tuition to keep his troubled son in an elite private school. In “There He Go,” a young girl whose mother moves constantly clings to a picture of the grandfather she doesn’t know and invents stories of his greatness that contrast with the actual man. Characters spotlighted in one story reappear in others, providing a stunning testament to the enduring resilience of Black people as they navigate the “post- racial” period The Last Suspicious Holdout so vividly portrays.