Great Expectations: A Novel by Vinson Cunningham

We watched our young narrator muddle his way through an entirely new — and utterly unfamiliar — world of power and money in this clear-eyed, charming coming-of-age-story we didn't want to end. (Oh, and that title? We're still laughing along with Cunningham.)

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A historic presidential campaign changes the trajectory of a young Black man’s life in the debut novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Vinson Cunningham, which “expertly captures a distinct moment in American history” (Town & Country, Best Books of 2024 So Far).

“Brilliantly written, piercingly smart, quietly subversive, Great Expectations will be one of the talked-about novels of the year.”—Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin, winner of the National Book Award

“Vinson Cunningham’s novel is a coming-of-age story that captures the soul of America.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

I’d seen the Senator speak a few times before my life got caught up, however distantly, with his, but the first time I can remember paying real attention was when he delivered the speech announcing his run for the Presidency.

When David first hears the Senator from Illinois speak, he feels deep ambivalence. Intrigued by the Senator’s idealistic rhetoric, David also wonders how he’ll balance the fervent belief and inevitable compromises it will take to become the United States’ first Black president.

Great Expectations is about David’s eighteen months working for the Senator's presidential campaign. Along the way David meets a myriad of people who raise a set of questions—questions of history, art, race, religion, and fatherhood—that force David to look at his own life anew and come to terms with his identity as a young Black man and father in America.

Meditating on politics and politicians, religion and preachers, fathers and family, Great Expectations is both an emotionally resonant coming-of-age story and a rich novel of ideas, marking the arrival of a major new writer.