The Gesture That Fit

<p>Thirteen-year-old Jacob Hayles has spent his life performing-the smiles the mannerisms the violence - anything to endure the gritty streets of Philadelphia. To those around him he's confident he's cool he's normal; but more than anything he's a man. Yet beneath this carefully crafted persona there's a truth he doesn't dare to acknowledge even as he fights to keep it buried.</p><p></p><p>When his friends challenge him to lose his virginity Jacob must prove his manhood or have his reality unravel. As the pressure mounts he finds refuge in Xavier the class weirdo and although their fateful relationship inspires hope it threatens to upend the life he has built-to unearth the Dead. With his world teetering on the verge of collapse Jacob will have to answer the question: is happiness possible without truth or does burying the Dead mean burying himself too?</p><p></p><p>A heartrending coming-of-age novel <em>The Gesture That Fit </em>portrays identity community and the disturbing concessions we make to belong. Devastating yet longingly tender Linton Taylor's literary debut shines a light on the shadowed intimacy between Black boys and their denied boyhood<em>.</em></p>