An absorbing tale that begins with a single, terrible act of violence a father unleashes upon his son before tracing the ripple of that act as it courses over many lives across decades. Structurally, the novel is quite unique; nearly every named character in the novel, all of them affected in some way by this act of violence, have their perspectives shared with us. Childs’s precise writing makes their anguish and their frustration feel so real despite the short time we spend viewing the story through each character’s eyes. A queer coming-of-age story for the ages.
Dreaming Home by Lucian Childs, (List Price: 16.95, Biblioasis, 9781771965491, June 2023)
Reviewed by Sam Edge, Epilogue: Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina