Hard City

The searing novel of a brutal boyhood in 1940s Chicago - and a young man walking the knife's edge between a life of crime and a brighter future.The son of a single mother addicted to heroin, Richie grows up in poverty and hardship. His adolescence is a constant battle between hope - in the form of a kind boxing coach, a job in a bowling alley where he can sneak a nap, and a determination to track down his disreputable father - and brutality. Desperately lonely, Richie must contend with the criminal justice system, abusive foster homes, and a period of exile with his grandmother in Tennessee.In this gritty, semiautobiographical novel by an Edgar Award-winning author, the fate of this young man hangs in the balance as he finds himself tested by want, war, and the ever-present temptation to give up on the possibility of something better."Strongly satisfying [and] frequently compelling." - Kirkus Reviews "Sustains a sense of tension, moving smoothly between flashbacks of the events of Richie's early years and the traumatic experiences of his adolescence, then on to his return to Chicago." - The New York Times