The following edition of the text was used in the creation of this study guide: Mott, Jason. People Like Us. Trapeze, 2025. Kindle AZW file.

The novel alternates between the perspective of two male African American authors, one named Soot and the other an unnamed narrator. Soot arrives in Minnesota to speak about his book shortly after a mass shooting at the venue. His driver, shaken by the tragedy, says Soot helped people heal after another shooting and mentions Soot’s father and daughter, whose stories are not yet explained. At the hotel, Soot reassures the driver by telling him to imagine Soot can time-travel and knows things will be okay.

A second, unnamed African American writer recalls the optimism of the 2020 BLM protests, then the return to normalcy. He describes a failed Hollywood attempt to adapt his book and an encounter in an alley with a man named Remus, who threatens to kill him. On a flight to Europe, he tells this story to a woman and falsely claims to be Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Soot visits his ex-wife Tasha in Toronto, where photos of their deceased daughter Mia remain displayed. He tells Tasha he can time-travel and has revisited Mia’s life, insisting her death wasn’t their fault. She doubts his sanity and urges him to leave North Carolina to cope.

The unnamed narrator remembers winning the National Book Award and the chaotic celebration afterward. His agent Sharon tells him a European billionaire (whose name is redacted) wants to fund a book tour for him, and she encourages him to go, noting someone has threatened to kill him. He considers buying a gun.

Soot time-travels to a dinner at the Minnesota school where the shooting occurred. In the bathroom, an African American man confronts him about appearing so soon after the tragedy, then breaks down, and Soot comforts him.

The narrator buys a gun and receives advice on sneaking it into Europe. He travels to Milan, where he is met by a large Black Scottish man he calls The Goon. After The Goon urges him to disconnect from America, the narrator throws away his phone. At the billionaire’s villa, he is tapped on the shoulder by someone he recognizes as “The Kid,” a child he used to hallucinate seeing.

Soot returns to the day his daughter Mia died by suicide in their backyard, recalling finding her note on the door.
The narrator discovers that the person he thought was The Kid is a young man named Dylan, who was born in Baltimore but raised in Europe. Dylan takes him to meet the billionaire, whom the narrator nicknames Frenchie. Frenchie says the narrator’s writing matters because he remembers America before worsening violence, and he offers him millions.

Soot describes keeping a copy of his book visible in his car to deter police violence and reveals he now also carries a gun.

In Frenchie’s library, the narrator learns the terms of the offer: stay in Europe permanently, write about old America, and never return home. He calls it The Big Score and considers accepting.

Soot time-travels to a period after his divorce but before Mia’s death, reflecting on his family land and his father’s death, which briefly drew national attention before being forgotten. Tasha urged him to leave, but he stayed.

The narrator begins his Italian book tour with The Goon and Dylan. At the event, he is surprised when the first question is whether he loves America. Later at a bar, he insists a Black waitress must be American, despite her being Italian. Dylan suddenly collapses in a medical episode. Dylan recovers after taking medication. In the bathroom, the narrator is confronted by Remus, the man who threatened to kill him in LA. Despite having a gun, he cannot bring himself to use it, and Remus stabs him.

In Toronto, before Mia’s death, Soot, Tasha, and Mia encounter a distressed woman named Vivian. Soot, influenced by knowledge of the future, tries to prevent Mia from interacting with her, fearing the meeting inspired Mia’s later suicide. Mia and Tasha help Vivian anyway. After Mia’s death, Vivian called Soot asking if she was to blame, and he told her no, though he had tried to blame her in his mind.

The narrator wakes in an Italian hospital funded by Frenchie after being stabbed. Frenchie, Dylan, and The Goon visit him. Dylan secretly returns the narrator’s gun and warns him to hide it. Once recovered, the narrator leaves the hospital and unexpectedly encounters a woman he knows named Kelly in an elevator.

In Minnesota, no one attends Soot’s scheduled school talk. Over dinner with the host, he admits he carries a gun because he is afraid.

In Italy, the narrator invites Kelly to join the group on their upcoming trip to Paris. The narrator, Kelly, The Goon, and Dylan drive toward Paris. The Goon stops in a remote area to fire the narrator’s gun; Kelly joins in, but Dylan stays in the car. They return to find Dylan shaken. In Paris, the narrator attends an embassy event with Dylan, who gets him past security by calling him Ta-Nehisi Coates. He meets another Black writer, Mateo, and later drinks with Dylan, a famous writer and a rapper who praise life in Europe. Dylan becomes angry, accusing them of abandoning America. Dylan leaves the bar upset, feeling he belongs nowhere. The narrator reassures him before Dylan collapses into another medical episode. Remus suddenly appears.

In Minnesota, Soot questions whether his “time travel” is really madness. In a hotel elevator, he drops his gun, frightening a woman.

In Paris, the narrator again cannot shoot Remus. He notices Remus’s back is scarred. Remus helps carry Dylan to a medical center and warns that no safe haven for people like them exists. Before leaving, he says “Next time” and tells the narrator to keep his gun.

Soot and Tasha attend an active-shooter drill at Mia’s school. Soot argues shootings are statistically rare; Tasha says treating them as unavoidable is exactly why she wants to leave America.

In Paris, the narrator gets Dylan admitted to a medical center only after invoking Frenchie’s name. A helicopter transports them to Frenchie’s mansion, where Dylan remains unconscious for weeks. The narrator grows accustomed to the luxury. After weeks, Dylan wakes from a nightmare of a school shooting.

Soot reads an excerpt from his book about Mia’s birth, describing odd moments of healing that accompanied it. After the reading, a grieving Black student thanks him for being weird and Soot cries.

In Paris, with Dylan recovered, the narrator, Dylan, The Goon, and Kelly live in isolation inside Frenchie’s Paris mansion for weeks, reading and being waited on. They plan a party; Frenchie arrives and the narrator accepts his multimillion-dollar offer to stay in Europe and write about America’s past. Remus then reappears. Remus attacks the narrator. The narrator shoots but accidentally hits Dylan, who collapses. Remus says they carried America’s problems with them to Europe. The narrator flees, runs through Paris, and tries to discard the gun in the river, but it hangs suspended in the air instead of falling.

Jason Mott, now revealed as the author, recalls almost using his father’s gun to kill himself as a teen and reflects on despair, suicide, and leaving America. At a Paris event, a young Black American woman says she never wants to return home. They cry together, and he comforts her by beginning to tell her the story of the novel, saying words can sometimes help “people like us.”