'All Our Names' is an evocative journey of identity and intimacy, following a young man's escape from the turmoil of a revolution in Africa to the quiet life of small-town America. In the throes of an African uprising, he's swept from university debates into the fervor of the streets, forced to confront the chasm between youthful idealism and the harrowing cost of violence. As one name, one identity, is left behind, another is assumed in the United States, where he, now called Isaac, navigates love with a social worker named Helen amidst the shadows of prejudice. But the echoes of his past continue to haunt him, as do the sacrifices of those who enabled his newfound peace. Mengestu crafts a narrative that is as much about the politics of place and history as it is about the permutations of the human heart, confronting the indelible lines that define us and the ones we redefine ourselves.