by Sayles, John
First published 2005
Hobie McNutt runs away from West Virginia and lands in a Boston commune during the turbulent fall of 1969. The seventeen-year-old finds shelter among young revolutionaries who offer him warmth, food, and companionship. But the group's political actions turn increasingly violent, and Hobie gets caught in a brutal power struggle that threatens to consume him. Meanwhile, his father Hunter leaves their mining town to search for his missing son. Hunter has been fighting to overthrow a corrupt union president in the coal fields, but now he takes day labor jobs in Boston to survive while hunting for Hobie. The city seethes with radical plots, desperate runaways, and overwhelmed police. Both father and son navigate parallel struggles in a world where work is scarce and violence lurks beneath political idealism. Their separate journeys through this fractured landscape eventually bring them together in a collision that reveals the true cost of their choices.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age, political-thriller, activism, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, parallel-narratives
Setting: Boston, West Virginia
Period: 1969
392 pages · Paperback · Bold Type Books
Content warnings: violence