The Art of Forgiveness

"The one with his indecipherable gibberish and long-in-the-back black hockey hair, who looked like he belonged in detention or the trailer park or both, who claimed soccer was the most popular sport, who during roll call called their teacher sir. And this American, wearing his stained Ralph Lauren sweater and yellow rubber boots, smelling like Drew's ma's Avon trunk, whacko enough to start a fight over Paul McCartney, smart enough to use big words and a lot of dirty ones too, yet too stupid to defer to Drew's natural authority. The truth of these new kids was, they were a savage northbound monsoon that hit Drew at least as hard as he hit them." By turns quirky and hard-edged, these are the stories of three boys growing up in the suburbs outside Halifax. Frustrated with their parents' inadequacies, unaware they possess the same ones, and inexplicably drawn to one other like a rudderless family lacking the necessary moral role models, they struggle to overcome their own weaknesses and most toxic traits. From one another they draw strength to survive schoolyard bullying, racism, domestic abuse, first love, the local drug economy, and even the loss of their parents. But they are never despondent, and will leave readers with hope that people-men in this case-can grow and become better.