Leo Culligan was born into a silence—the echoing quiet where a father’s voice should have been. The posthumous son of a man he never met, his childhood is a study in absence, defined by the empty chair at the dinner table and the ghost of a brother lost to war. In the suffocating stillness of his 1970s suburban home, thirteen-year-old Leo is a boy built around a father-shaped hole, desperately trying to solve the unsolvable equation of his fractured family. His mother, Eleanor, is a ghost herself, shrouded in a grief so deep it leaves no room for her living son. His older brothers are either absent or angry, and the weight of a legacy he didn’t ask for presses down on him. When his attempt to silence the pain forever fails, Leo is thrust into a new, more complicated reality. The fragile truce at home is shattered by the arrival of Claire, a woman whose vibrant presence and love for his mother threatens the only world Leo has ever known. As his mother dares to build a new life, Leo’s world collapses into a maelstrom of confusion, betrayal, and a shame that spills into the vicious hallways of his school. Seeking escape, Leo turns to the open road on a beat-up Honda motorcycle, the one thing that makes him feel free. But when the road isn't enough, he descends into a dangerous underworld of chemicals and reckless friends, each failed escape driving him closer to the edge. From the hollow logs of his brother’s woods to the precipice of a desolate quarry, Leo maps the treacherous geography of his own despair, forced to confront the terrifying calculus of staying present in a world that seems determined to break him. This is the story of a boy’s raw and painful journey to manhood, a journey he was forced to begin too soon. It is a profound exploration of the architecture we build around our losses and the long, winding road we must travel to finally come home to ourselves. Told from the reflective vantage of adulthood, this powerful narrative reveals that while we are the sum of our absences, we are also defined by the courage it takes to build a life of meaning and love in the spaces that were left behind. Note: This is a novel with adult themes, including suicide, drug use, complex family dynamics, and sexual identity, making it most suitable for an adult audience. While the protagonist is a teenager for much of the story, the reflective, mature narrative voice and the intensity of the subject matter place it firmly in the adult literary fiction and coming-of-age category. "All proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to The Fatherless Boys Foundation."
