The Deft Inventions of <i>The Parking Lot Attendant</i>

Open Nafkote Tamirat’s debut novel and you might think you are reading a strange time-travel fantasy. On the first page, an unnamed teenage narrator finds herself in an isolated, decaying island colony, referred to only as B——. “My first memory,” she says, “is of vomiting upon contact with the ginger-drenched air.” She spends her days searching for the unknown source of the smell. Then again, given the aura of threat that quickly intrudes, you may change your mind and think political intrigue awaits. The narrator is vague about why she and her father are on the island in the first place, and apprehensive about what may become of them