Praise for My Person:
"Téa Mutonji writes sharply about the subtle ruptures endemic to formative friendships." —Raven Leilani, bestselling author of Luster
"In her searing debut novel, Téa Mutonji delivers an unflinching portrait of female friendship in all its ferocity and tenderness. Mutonji traces the bond between two young women whose relationship is as sustaining as it is suffocating, as loving as it is destructive. Visceral and impossible to shake, My Person announces an essential new voice in contemporary fiction."
—Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One Golden Summer
“Thank god for Téa Mutonji. Her new novel, My Person, covers the tricky territory of two lifelong friends extricating themselves from each other's lives. It sounds sad, and it is, but it's also sexy, infuriating, and unbelievably fun to read. You can tell you're in the hands of a poet; the writing crackles on the page. This is a writer who can read someone to filth in just one line. If you've ever known the pain of a friend breakup, this one's for you. Téa Mutonji has managed to take some of the ugliest thoughts and worst moments and turn it into a sparkling novel about reclaiming your sense of self.” —Katie Yee, author of Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar
“My Person is a smart and moving novel about the way adulthood complicates friendships from youth—which don’t always grow with us—with a sharp eye to subtle dynamics around race, privilege, and sex. Fans of Fleabag, Luster, and Emma Cline will devour this book as eagerly as I did and think about it long after.” –Emily Everett, author of Reese's Book Club Pick All That Life Can Afford
“A novel unlike anything I've read before, teeming with pathos, authenticity and wit. On the surface My Person is about friendship—the intimacy, the codependency, the envy, the rage and the love—but also it's a novel about a Black girl who dares to behave badly, to shun the expectations of those around her and search for freedom while in a freefall. My Person is sexy, hilarious, devastating and compulsively readable. I downed it in one sitting like a shot of hard liquor, savouring the burn. An explosive debut from a once-in-a-generation talent.” —Jasmine Sealy, award-winning author of The Island of Forgetting
“This is a sharp and sexy book, full of indelible moments when the truth gushes out and what’s said cannot be unsaid. An unflinching, heartbreaking examination of all that comes with loving, and losing, a best friend. A fabulous debut—deeply enjoyable.” —Jean Chen Ho, author of Fiona and Jane
“Téa Mutonji’s My Person, her debut novel and a follow-up to the critically acclaimed story collection Shut-Up, You’re Pretty, is witty and sexy and an extraordinarily intimate story of identity and lifelong relationships. Mutonji has a singular talent for writing beautiful, thought-provoking, challenging prose without ever losing momentum on the page. This novel is populated with very real, complicated characters navigating race and privilege and their impact on friendship, chosen and biological family, and self. Mutonji’s voice is distinctive and self-assured, precise and personal, and My Person is a remarkable accomplishment.”
—Fawn Parker, author of Hi, It's Me
“Téa Mutonji’s writing is unafraid of uncomfortable confrontations. When the politics of everyday life reshape how relationships form and fracture, when hypervisibility, where writing, publishing, and the desire to control one’s own image collide, and when rumours and perceptions continue to shape personal life, My Person asks what is the cost of wanting love, stability, or simply a good laugh. This debut novel transforms these contemporary discomforts into a form of self-reclamation. It is a story that is raw, sexy, devastatingly real, and filled with moments of tenderness.”
—Sheung-King, Author of Batshit Seven, Winner of the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize
"A nuanced and fearless exploration of friendship, family, race and class, and the extraordinary pressures of coming of age as an artist, told with subtlety and verve." —Nussaibah Younis, Women's Prize-shortlisted author of Fundamentally
“My Person offers no roadmaps or easy answers, it instead delivers something even greater and more significant—a candid character portrait absent judgement and written with a sensitivity that allows for true nuance and complexity. Through Tania's meditative narration, Téa Mutonji both observes and delves into the messiness of human relationships and really digs into the complexities of power and control in friendships, which leads to explorations of race and class and intimacy and boundaries. What a liberating experience.” –Zalika Reid-Benta, award-winning author of River Mumma and Frying Plantain
“A fresh, flamboyant take on modern friendships—tremendously fly and enjoyable.” —Diana Evans, Women’s Prize-shortlisted author of Ordinary People
"Searing. . . . Mutonji unflinchingly examines what it means to lose yourself in a relationship, giving platonic bonds the same psychological weight we usually reserve for romantic ones. She also deftly exposes the subtle sting of race and class in a supposedly tolerant Canada, where racism doesn't announce itself dramatically but quietly erodes personhood through acts of extravagant generosity. It's a sharp, uncomfortable observation. Readers of Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams, and Luster by Raven Leilani, will find much to love here. My Person is an assured, necessary debut novel from a truly promising writer." —Booklist
"[A] searching debut. . . . Mutonji explores the women’s care for and importance to each other, even as they trade slights, [and] the novel reveals how their bond has been warped by codependency as much as inequity. . . . It’s a clear-eyed take on the formative power of female friendships." —Publishers Weekly
"A razor-sharp and incredibly nuanced debut that captures the intoxicating and power of lifelong friendship with remarkable emotional precision. She effortlessly explores race, class, and identity with prose that packs a punch." —Debutiful
