A Conversation with Frank Santo

When you come from a place like the Bronx—a place that isn’t often represented in fiction—and when it is, it tends to be represented in an exploitative manner, it’s natural to have your guard up when you hear about a novel set there—and even more so when you hear this novel was written by a white dude who isn’t even from the Bronx. You can imagine, then, my suspicions when I learned about Frank Santo’s novel, The Birthparents (Tortoise Books, 2023).