Pin the black boy onto the green pew and he will eventually call it home.

CHILD AND GOD tells the story of an unnamed brother and sister growing up in a Pentecostal Christian household in 1990s Detroit, their lives diverging under the weight of belief.

The sister, older and more knowing than anyone suspects, quietly resists the family’s religious context. The younger brother, by contrast, appears destined for unwavering devotion – if he can excise those parts of himself he fears God will not accept.

What emerges is a haunting meditation on the American Black church: its beauty, its terror, and the profound psychological toll it exacts. Ultimately, this is a novel that charts friendship, identity and spiritual questioning against the pressures of family, faith and society and heralds the arrival of a new literary talent.

Told in tight, alternating perspectives, Quinn’s expansive debut will appeal to readers of Garth Greenwell, James Baldwin, Ian McEwan and Douglas Stuart.