Eve Irvine speaks with award-winning author Rob Franklin about his acclaimed debut novel, Great Black Hope, a piercing exploration of race, class, and the fragile nature of belonging. Franklin draws on worlds he has observed since childhood to dissect how social hierarchies infiltrate even our most intimate relationships. The narrative centers on David Smith, a young Black man raised within the Southern Black bourgeoisie. While his education, manners, and connections grant him entry into elite spaces, he remains haunted by the precarity of his position—the constant threat of expulsion. That tension drives a profound examination of respectability politics and the corrosive psychological cost of performing an endlessly curated, “acceptable” version of oneself.
