Who Knows You by Heart: A Novel

by C. J. Farley

Overview

Part social thriller, part modern love story, Who Knows You by Heart is a sly, witty, and endlessly discussable tale of Big Tech, new money, relationships, race, and discovering what’s real in an age of artificial intelligence.

Octavia Crenshaw, a Jamaican-American coder living in Manhattan, is broke, burned out, and haunted by her parents’ deaths. Desperate to pay off some debts, she ditches her nonprofit job for a high-paying gig at Eustachian Inc., a Big Tech company that specializes in audio entertainment. Language, communication, human connection—these are the markets Eustachian wants to revolutionize...and dominate.

Octavia finds herself swept up in the world of the Tech Titans, with its lure of instant riches and its seemingly limitless future. But as one of Eustachian’s very few Black employees, Octavia is uncomfortably aware of things that seem to escape her coworkers: unexplained tech glitches, cryptic remarks, a mysterious secret floor in the corporation’s gleaming headquarters.

But she sets her suspicions aside when she’s recruited by another Black coder—the infuriating but attractive Walcott—to collaborate on a secret project code-named Zion. Zion is a new kind of AI-powered storytelling, one that’s programmed to be free from the racist and sexist biases that plague other AI products. Zion could launch Eustachian into a bold new future and make its developers super rich while righting all kinds of injustices. Octavia and Walcott’s excitement over their creation sets off romantic sparks between the two of them, until they discover a toxic secret about their employer—something that they can’t unlearn, or overlook, but must overcome.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063418639
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/11/2025
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

C. J. Farley, born in Kingston, Jamaica, and raised in Brockport, New York, graduated from Harvard University and served as an editor of the Harvard Lampoon. Farley’s novel Around Harvard Square won an NAACP Image Award and the author’s biography Before the Legend: The Rise of Bob Marley was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Farley co-wrote and co-edited the book The Blues with Martin Scorsese and was consulting producer on the Peabody-winning HBO documentary Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown. Farley, a former senior editor for the Wall Street Journal and a former music critic for Time magazine, has interviewed some of the greatest musical artists in the world, including Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Lauryn Hill, Adele, Beyoncé, Jay Z, Radiohead and Taylor Swift. Farley also worked as an Executive Editor at Amazon Inc.’s Audible. 

Editorial Reviews

Witty, incisive, funny and deeply prescient. C.J. Farley has his finger on the pulse of our current moment and exposes the complications of Black life, labor, and thought in the midst of it.” — Imani Perry, National Book Award-winning author of South to America

“The Black Arts movement of the 1960s began the revolt against Anglo standards and liberated Hispanic, Native American, and Asian American writers. But Black Arts writers were mostly poets. Beginning in 1996, C.J. Farley, Colson Whitehead, Paul Beatty, and Victor LaValle did the same for the Black novel. With his novel about a Black woman’s struggles in the world of Big Tech, Farley’s ‘Who Knows You By Heart’ is the first AI novel, and coupled with his vast knowledge of pop culture, he has written a novel about our times.” — Ishmael Reed, author of “Mumbo Jumbo”

“WHO KNOWS YOU BY HEART is a brutally honest, brilliantly funny evisceration of artificial intelligence and the pretensions of the tech industry.” — Eric Kaplan, executive producer of “The Big Bang Theory” and “Young Sheldon”

“Finally a young brother with a powerful voice, not afraid to say it loud and proud. I welcome him!” — Terry McMillan, author of “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”

"Electrifying and smart, Who Knows You By Heart is part thriller, part prophecy, part gift and all the way live." — Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

“[C.J. Farley’s] ‘Kingston by Starlight’ is an extraordinary achievement. Filled with heart-racing voyages, exploits, and adventures—not to mention extraordinarily vivid and elegant prose—it surprises and amazes you at every turn.” — Edwidge Danticat, author of “The Dew Breaker”

“Wry, sly, and ferociously funny, [C.J. Farley’s] ‘Around Harvard Square’ is not just the satire Ivy League college life deserves, but the one it’s been waiting for.” — Marlon James, Man Booker Prize–winning author of “A Brief History of Seven Killings”

“‘Around Harvard Square’...blends J.D. Salinger's rueful tones with Paul Beatty’s biting humor and becomes something entirely its own.” — Victor LaValle, author of “The Changeling”

“‘Around Harvard Square’ is a hysterical romp through one memorable freshman year…A provocative pleasure."  — Gish Jen, author of “Typical American”

“C.J. Farley explores the complex realms of race and privilege at college with humor, insight, and edge.” — Walter Isaacson, author of “Leonardo da Vinci”

“‘Zero O’Clock’ is an insightful, eye-opening, and inventive story. C.J. Farley has penned a novel that sheds an important light on real issues facing young people today.” — Angie Thomas, author of “The Hate U Give”

From the Publisher