In the tradition of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me, acclaimed novelist David Chariandy’s latest is an intimate and profoundly beautiful meditation on the politics of race today

'There is, as you pick it up, nothing to prepare you for its power' OBSERVER 'Quite simply, one of the most beautiful books I have ever read' AMINATTA FORNA How do we navigate our complex histories for our children? What is our duty to share and what must we leave for them to discover? Writing to his daughter, David Chariandy asks difficult, unsettling, perhaps impossible questions – questions made all the more poignant by our current political landscape. With tender, spare and luminous prose, Chariandy looks both into his heart and mind and out to the world and humanity. In the tradition of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, this is a book about race; this is a book about family.

"There is, as you pick it up, nothing to prepare you for its power, unless you already know Chariandy’s fiction. He writes slender books that go straight to the heart ... But this new book is devastating in a new way because it is non-fiction – and personal" - Observer

"Reminiscent of Coates's and Adichie's letters, I've Been Meaning to Tell You builds upon foundational discussions of race and gender, layering in intersections of class and citizenship with a flawless hand. Chariandy is smart, tender, and often funny as he weaves together narrative and analysis to navigate perhaps the most complex relationship of all: that of father and daughter" - Sara Novic, author of Girl at War

"Chariandy's stunning book is both a precise puncturing of the post-racial bubble, as well as an incredibly personal and powerful letter to his daughter. I wish I could have read this when I was growing up" - Nafkote Tamirat, author of The Parking Lot Attendant