Chicago’ s western suburbs. Young Joe Walsh is making a go of it at a new school, still haunted by his rough-and-tumble city upbringing. He’ s got some great opportunities— a summer seminar at one of the world’ s top physics laboratories, a hard-hitting Catholic clergyman and boxing instructor who thinks he’ s got talent in the ring, and a beautiful girlfriend who’ s giving him some much-needed love and support. But the challenges of Chicago have followed him to its outskirts; his sister’ s struggling to recover after being shot by one of his former friends, his mom’ s unvarnished ways are rubbing their wealthy neighbors the wrong way, and his brother’ s fresh out of prison and falling into old habits. Like many young men before him, Joe’ s taking out his frustrations in the boxing ring, and dreaming of a triumphant career— but will that, too, become a prison?
This follow-up to Bill Hillmann’ s The Old Neighborhood connects like a 1-2 punch. It’ s another modern classic from one of the city’ s best authors, a powerful story unlike anything you’ ve read before.
