The author sets the stage immediately: “I am Joseph Senu, an African immigrant living in Redondo Beach, California, United States of America….I am telling my grandson, Caleb, my life story so that he may learn lessons from it to lead his own life.” Joseph, feeling that he’s in the “departure lounge” of his own existence, feels compelled to share his autobiography. He starts with the day he was born, “three or four months before Christmas” in 1953, and follows his childhood growing up in the African locales of Akwa and Pram. He traces his life story through primary and secondary school before he began attending UCLA in the late 1970s. Alongside Joseph’s story are those of his friends and relatives, who suffered different fates from his, including his cousin Bruda and old classmates who also traveled to the United States, Dan, George, Thomas, and Amana. Joseph seeks to relay wisdom to Caleb via these tragic tales: “If Amana had not chosen the immediate gratification of living the more comfortable life in America…perhaps the trajectory of his life and career would have taken a different turn.” At times, the two aspects of the novel—the personal recollections and the teaching of lessons—feel disjointed, but the author does it in a way that mimics the reality of trying to have such a deep conversation with a child. Toward the end, for instance, Joseph recounts his health scares and his reflections: “Caleb, I have never given up fighting for my health and life and you should never give up either.” Overall, Abrokwa gives Joseph’s recollection the familiar digressive quality of an elderly family member who’s keen to bend one’s ear at a family reunion, but Caleb appealingly grounds the work with his own straightforward desires: “Grandpa, I want to go to an LA Galaxy soccer game before I go back to Boston next week.” At times, readers may get the sense that Caleb’s childish mind and imagination may well be elsewhere.