What is family — is it shaped through blood, through community, through love? What is the family and parenting we need to feel whole and know ourselves authentically? These are big questions and in Coconut John and Elizabeth Clay have written a searching generational novel that tackles it all with originality and surprise. Most importantly I came to love all the characters that wind through this novel. Somehow each of them broke and healed my heart. A powerful debut.
— Victoria Redel, author of Before Everything

Coconut makes a deep impression. The story haunts chapter by chapter, following the main characters on a mystery journey. Surging with poetic description, pages sing like Walcott’s Omeros and Joyce’s Ulysses. The characters stay real, like people we know or people we would like to be. This is a story that will resonate with readers across generations.
— George Klawitter, CSC, author of A Little World Made Cunningly

Coconut is a meticulously crafted, deeply moving novel, that exemplifies the complexities of human experience. The rhythm of the lyrical prose is astounding. It is a nuanced, multi-generational family saga that intertwines lives and memories across time periods and locations. Adoption, especially, with all of its intricate ramifications, is deftly explored. Coconut will satisfy readers who long for real depth. It sent shivers down my spine.
— Mark Katzman, author of M7

Coconut is a piece of art like that archetypical quilt, that jazz combo, that Minnesota style - fast moving and precise, artistic and scientific, chaotic and weaving strings together, intuitive and cultured, brash and optimistic — written with an American sound that's personal, graceful, sophisticated.
— Stephan Peter, writer and artist

I’ve spent my life out there in the real world, living real-life adventures. Coconut is a novel that captures that sense of the real — from childhood dreams to grown-up adversities. And all in beautiful language. If you want to enjoy an engaging well-told story, this is it.
— J. Robert Harris, author of Way Out There: Adventures of a Wilderness Trekker

A captivating and poignant story that traverses diverse cultures and generations, Coconut seamlessly weaves a narrative of heartbreak and hope. I felt deeply connected to each character, like I was right there with them every step of the way.
— Debbie Yee Lan Wong, author of The Same Sky: A Traveler’s Quest for Redemption and Peace

Anticipated audience

• Book club readers who enjoy novels that are intimate, beautiful, and thought-provoking.
• Readers who enjoy novels that take them to other places and other times.
• Young people trying to invent or discover themselves.
• Readers who enjoy generational family stories.
• Members of genealogy websites like 23andMe, Ancestry, Familysearch.
• Adoptees, adoptive parents, and birth parents.