Sonny Goodman may have hopped the "modern underground railroad called
education" and arrived in far-flung Minneapolis, but with the impending
death of his father, North Philadelphia is calling him home. Quickly
caught in the web that inner-city life has woven around his family's
dreams, Sonny must find the strength to confront the toll urban
corrosion has wrought upon the ones he loves.
Named Best First Novel by the Black Caucus of the American Library
Association, winner of the Minnesota Book Award and compared to the work
of James Baldwin and August Wilson, Alexs D. Pate's highly absorbing
debut novel "rings with a truth as immediate as body counts in the
headlines, as enduring as a classic tragedy."--San Francisco Chronicle