The Old Man, Beowulf and the King

Charles Ynfante's The Old Man, Beowulf, and the King  is historical fiction, exploring how hatred is passed down, but also how it can be challenged. The story is set in a city gripped by racial tension, poverty, and violence. It centers on the lives of Black residents in a tenement building, particularly the family of Aniyah and her sons, Tyrone who is fifteen years old and Ezekiel who is twelve years old, as well as their elderly neighbor, Mr.
Joshua Thurman, and others. The narrative opens with the killing of Lontell Davis, an ordinary Black man, by a white police officer. His death starts citywide unrest. The violence is seen through the eyes of Ezekiel, who witnesses the chaos, and Mr. Thurman, who links current events to past struggles, including the Watts Riots, the Civil Rights Movement, and his own experiences fleeing the Ku Klux Klan as a child. The tenement's residents are bound by hardship and mutual support.
Aniyah, a leader in the local Black Lives Matter movement, grapples with the burden of activism and the safety of her children. Tyrone, torn between his mother's commitment to nonviolence and the allure of militant resistance, is influenced by Ahmahd, a neighbor preparing for violent confrontation. Ezekiel, meanwhile, seeks solace in reading books, and in the wisdom of Mr. Thurman, who tells him the story of Beowulf. One of the white supremacists, Torque is a former police officer but still a Ku Klux Klan member, whose family history of racism is traced back generations.
Torque's sister, Vivian, has married a Black man, and stands in opposition to her brother's ideology. As the city braces for a violent confrontation between Black residents and white supremacists, the story builds to a tense standoff at the tenement.  Charles Ynfante's historical novel explores the persistence of racism and white supremacy in America; the cyclical nature of violence and the challenge of breaking it; the importance of community, intergenerational wisdom, and solidarity; and the tension between nonviolent resistance and militant self-defense.
Ultimately, this story is about the search for hope, dignity, and meaning in the face of oppression.