{"product_id":"leave-your-mess-at-home","title":"Leave Your Mess at Home","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A heartfelt story about how we reconcile the people we once were to become who we're truly meant to be.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eReal Simple\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"When siblings unite for the holidays, drama ensues.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003ePeople's \"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eBest Books of April\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"[ \n\u003ci\u003eLeave Your Mess at Home\u003c\/i\u003e] explores complex sibling dynamics.... There's something everyone can relate to in here.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eCosmopolitan\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Written from the perspective of four Nigerian American siblings in Chicago, Tolani Akinola's debut has everything I'm looking for in a family drama.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Kiefer Lee, \u003ci\u003eSouthern Living\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"As you read \n\u003ci\u003eLeave Your Mess at Home\u003c\/i\u003e, think \"Soul Food\" meets \"Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins.\" It's an emotional roller coaster that interrogates our loyalty, forgiveness and unconditional love for family and self.\"-- \n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAtlanta Journal-Constitution\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"Seven Boldest Debuts\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Ten New Releases from Black Authors You Should Be Reading Right Now\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Grio\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Akinola's debut novel centers four siblings who are forced back together for Thanksgiving and have to deal with all the resentment, history, and unconditional love that comes with family. If your spring reading list needs drama with heart, this one should be on it.\" \n\u003cb\u003e --\u003ci\u003eBET\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A stunning debut that does not shy away from the messiness of young adulthood and the chaos of discovering who you are. It balances the complexity of navigating a question that haunts most children of immigrants: what do we owe to our families and what do we owe to ourselves?\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eElectric Lit \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Striking, smart.... There's a tenderness to the Longe family, even amid their bitterest struggles.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eBookPage\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"[A] sensitive portrayal of how family dynamics can be stifling and how seeing things from only one perspective means missing out on the full picture. This debut novel is an exquisitely observed portrait of an impactful two-month slice of one immigrant family's complicated experience in this country.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"An incredible and moving debut centered on one family's dysfunction that probes questions of familial belonging and duty, immigration and identity, harm and healing . . . With great care and no small amount of humor, Akinola explores the hidden toll of secrets and buried resentments over decades spent loving one another within the bounds of a messy, imperfect family. Heartfelt and heartbreaking.\" \n\u003cb\u003e --\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"In taking such an intimate yet wide-reaching approach to examining the notion of home within the diaspora, Akinola takes part in the tradition of a lineage of Black writers and artists who have done so before her . . . Within this company, \n\u003ci\u003eLeave Your Mess at Home\u003c\/i\u003e stands out as an individual (a testament to Akinola's strength of characterization and world-building) . . . Akinola writes characters with abundant and overflowing lives. But it's their interiority that is most captivating. We fall in love, throughout the novel, with all four of the narrators, despite their flaws.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eBrooklyn Rail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"I already know \n\u003ci\u003eLeave Your Mess at Home\u003c\/i\u003e will be one of my (and your?) favorite books of 2026--it's such a warm, smart, hilarious, delicious, riveting messed-up-adult-siblings novel and I totally loved it \n\u003ci\u003e.\u003c\/i\u003e\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Curtis Sittenfeld\u003c\/b\u003e, \n\u003cb\u003eNYT bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eRomantic Comedy \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Tolani Akinola is a gifted, powerful new voice in American fiction. Her writing is sharp and wonderfully textured--capturing the nuances and complexities and, yes, messiness of the relationships within one immigrant family, in every permutation. There are multiple messes in \n\u003ci\u003eLeave Your Mess At Home\u003c\/i\u003e; I loved reading about every one of them. This is a novel that captures the reality of our imperfect ways of loving--and reminds us that love still matters.\" \n\u003cb\u003e --Rachel Khong, New York Times bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eReal Americans\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Leave Your Mess at Home is a shimmering, consuming, exuberant debut that is just bursting with life. Tolani Akinola is a born storyteller.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Jenny Jackson, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of Pineapple Street\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Leave Your Mess At Home has all the long-buried secrets, simmering rivalries, and siblings failing at adulthood you could want from a family drama. It has all the love, sex, and scandal you could ask from a page-turner. It's full of smart, generous, timely exploration of issues of immigration, race, class, violence, gender, sexuality, social media, generational dynamics...this book covers a lot of impressive ground. In short, whatever you love in a novel, you'll find it in this one. Tolani Akinola's debut has it all.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Laurie Frankel, \u003ci\u003e New York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThis Is How It Always Is \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eFamily, Family\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"What a thrill to read a novel so alive. I tore through it, laughing out loud, aching for the Longe siblings as they unraveled, rooting for them like they were mine. Tolani Akinola writes family estrangement with such honesty and insight, capturing the ways we push away the people we love to protect ourselves, yet still reach back for them. \n\u003ci\u003eLeave Your Mess at Home\u003c\/i\u003e is vibrant, incisive, and hilarious, a truly remarkable debut.\" \n\u003cb\u003e --Essie Chambers, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eSwift River\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"There's more than one way to hold family shame and the Longe siblings prove that in Tolani Akinola's wise, funny, and engrossing debut. This is the kind of book I'm always hoping to find in the bookstore. Funny, insightful, and full of drama that had me torn between racing to the end and savoring every sentence. I was charmed by the Longe siblings, even as they broke each other's hearts.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Aisha Muharrar, author of \u003ci\u003eLoved One\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"In \n\u003ci\u003eLeave Your Mess At Home\u003c\/i\u003e, all hell breaks hilariously and heartbreakingly loose for the Longe family before the healing finally crawls in. Funny, fraught, and incredibly relatable, this one is for you--for every one of us. Familial estrangement, the trials and tribulations of assimilation, devious deacons, a mother's betrayal, the pain of complicity, the costs of perfectionism, the relief of reconciliation, whatever your jam, you will find it in this novel.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Chinelo Okparanta, author of \u003ci\u003eUnder the Udala Trees \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eHarry Sylvester Bird \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"[Leave Your Mess at Home] is a family drama that doesn't lean too hard into sentimentality . . . The dialogue is realistic, and at times provides the novel with welcome doses of humor. . . Akinola handles difficult themes with grace.\" \n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e --Kirkus Reviews \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Eldest daughter syndrome meets the social media era with a twist on a lovely Chicago bridge.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eHelloBeautiful \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"At times amusing and other times heartbreaking, this thought-provoking novel examines dramatic yet relatable family dynamics, complete with resentment and unconditional love.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eArtsATL \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A gift to readers with a yen for complicated family dramas. . . . Not all the Longe children are likeable, but over the course of the story, readers will find that every character is richly drawn, interesting, and understandable.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003e425 Magazine \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A funny and touching debut.\" \n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--Scary Mommy \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"This debut novel captures the sprawling messiness of family and what it means to return home.\" \n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--The Story Exchange\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBiographical Note\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTolani Akinola is a Reese's Book Club LitUp Fellow. She holds a BA from the University of Chicago and an MPH from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. She lives outside of Atlanta.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBrief Description\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A warm, funny and tender debut about the uncomfortable, unbreakable ties of family as four adult siblings come home to confront the state of their own lives and each other The Longe siblings are really botching their parents' American Dream. Sola Longe, eldest daughter, estranged from the family, is secretly back home in Chicago for the first time in a decade. She's a newly single and recently disgraced influencer trying to quietly put her life back together again. But Sola's unexpected return sets her on a crash course toward her other three adult siblings. And when the four of them finally find themselves together again at their Nigerian immigrant parents' Thanksgiving table, a decade's worth of secrets and a lifetime of resentments explode to the fore. But Sola is not the only Longe whose life is a total mess. The other three aren't doing much better: Anjola is in love with her best friend, who just got engaged to someone else; Karen, a college junior and the youngest, is grappling with her sexuality and self-image; and Ola, the golden child with his own baby on the way, is questioning his marriage and how to raise a Black son in America. In the wreckage of their fateful reunion, each Longe is forced to reckon with the past, take stock of what really matters, and find a way back to each other. Big-hearted, hilarious, and poignant, Leave Your Mess At Home is an insightful debut about forgiveness, unconditional love, and becoming who you want to be. It's a novel that asks: what do we owe to our families, and what do we owe to ourselves?\"-- Provided by publisher.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\"Warm, smart, hilarious, delicious, riveting.\"--Curtis Sittenfeld, New York Times bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eRomantic Comedy\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Powerful... There are multiple messes in \u003ci\u003eLeave Your Mess At Home\u003c\/i\u003e; I loved reading about every one of them.\"--Rachel Khong, New York Times bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eReal Americans\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e**A Best Book of April: \u003ci\u003ePeople, \u003ci\u003eThe Millions, Atlantic Journal-Constitution, The Root, Muses of Media\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e**A Most Anticipated Book of 2026: \u003ci\u003eElectric Lit, SheReads, HelloBeautiful, ScaryMommy\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eThe Longe siblings are really botching their parents' American Dream.\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSola Longe, eldest daughter, estranged from the family, is secretly back home in Chicago for the first time in a decade. She's a newly single and recently disgraced influencer trying to quietly put her life back together again. The other three Longe siblings aren't doing much better. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAnjola is in love with her best friend, who just got engaged to someone else; Karen, a college junior and the baby of the family, is grappling with her sexuality and self-image; and Ola, the golden child with a baby of his own on the way, is questioning his marriage and how to raise a Black son in America. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSola's unexpected return sets them on a crash course towards each other, and when the four siblings find themselves together again at their Nigerian immigrant parents' Thanksgiving table, a decade's worth of secrets and a lifetime of resentments explode to the fore. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the wreckage of their fateful reunion, each Longe is forced to reckon with the past, take stock of what really matters, and find a way back to each other. Big-hearted, hilarious, and wise, \n\u003ci\u003eLeave Your Mess At Home\u003c\/i\u003e is a poignant exploration of forgiveness, unconditional love, and becoming who you want to be, asking the question: what do we owe to our families, and what do we owe to ourselves?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e 03\/01\/2026 (EAN 9780593834190, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/span\u003e 12\/30\/0001 (EAN 9780593834190, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eBooklist\u003c\/span\u003e 03\/01\/2026 (EAN 9780593834190, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/span\u003e 01\/01\/2026 pg. 52 (EAN 9780593834190, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"Pamela Dorman Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496149483798,"sku":"9780593834190","price":34.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9780593834190.jpg?v=1783054065","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/leave-your-mess-at-home","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}