New People

Maria is young, black, and in love with her poet boyfriend Khalil, who is white--so imagine her surprise when he leaves her for a grad student named Ariela. As Maria's world comes crashing down around her, she finds herself falling into a whirlwind affair with an older, married professor of Southeast Asian history. As this steamy relationship snowballs out of control, so does Maria's fascination with all things Jonestown. With the twentieth anniversary of the cult mass suicide drawing closer and closer--and amid rumors that the charismatic preacher Jim Jones may still be alive--Maria begins to question everything she thought she knew about love and history and our capacity for self-delusion.