Leave Your Mess at Home

"Warm, smart, hilarious, delicious, riveting."--Curtis Sittenfeld, New York Times bestselling author of Romantic Comedy

"Powerful... There are multiple messes in Leave Your Mess At Home; I loved reading about every one of them."--Rachel Khong, New York Times bestselling author of Real Americans

The Longe siblings are really botching their parents' American Dream.

Sola Longe, eldest daughter, estranged from the family, is secretly back home in Chicago for the first time in a decade. She's a newly single and recently disgraced influencer trying to quietly put her life back together again. The other three Longe siblings aren't doing much better.

Anjola is in love with her best friend, who just got engaged to someone else; Karen, a college junior and the baby of the family, is grappling with her sexuality and self-image; and Ola, the golden child with a baby of his own on the way, is questioning his marriage and how to raise a Black son in America.

Sola's unexpected return sets them on a crash course towards each other, and when the four siblings find themselves together again at their Nigerian immigrant parents' Thanksgiving table, a decade's worth of secrets and a lifetime of resentments explode to the fore.

In the wreckage of their fateful reunion, each Longe is forced to reckon with the past, take stock of what really matters, and find a way back to each other. Big-hearted, hilarious, and wise, Leave Your Mess At Home is a poignant exploration of forgiveness, unconditional love, and becoming who you want to be, asking the question: what do we owe to our families, and what do we owe to ourselves?

Author: Tolani Akinola
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Published: 04/14/2026
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780593834190


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 03/01/2026
Shelf Awareness 01/01/0001
Booklist 03/01/2026
Library Journal 01/01/2026 pg. 52

About the Author
Tolani Akinola is a Reese's Book Club LitUp Fellow. She holds a BA from the University of Chicago and an MPH from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. She lives outside of Atlanta.