Joseph Earl Thomas's Debut Memoir 'Sink' Is a Difficult but Tender Story of Black Boyhood

Author Joseph Earl Thomas’s new memoir focuses on his upbringing in Frankford, a neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia where his family struggled with drug addiction and he faced constant hostility. To get through his childhood, he threw himself into the world of geek culture, like “Pokémon.” His debut memoir is called Sink, which the New York Times calls "an extraordinary memoir of a Black American boyhood."