Part love story, part protest at the broken promises lying at the heart of the American Dream, this astonishing debut novel from one of the music world's rising stars is a passionate, twisted hymn to the marginalized and forgotten Black Jesus is shy, and a killer. Black Jesus is white as a dove A young marine returns from Iraq, blinded and scarred by a roadside bomb and harboring a terrible secret. Called Black Jesus by his fellow soldiers on account of his name being Lionel White and his birthday being Christmas Day, he has returned to his decaying home town to sit in the back of his mother's junkshop, pop OxyContin, and try to forget what he's seen. Into his life one day rides Gloria, a mysterious young dancer who is fleeing darkness and violence of a different kind, and with whom he finds unexpected love.