Set in 1980s Kentucky, Hope House is told from inside a treatment home for troubled teenagers, where lost boys become more than their pasts and dare to imagine different futures.
There’s AWOL, who won’t stop running away. There’s Smoove, who's been shot in his feet. There’s Damico, Karvel, Peanut, and Tonyboy Malopelli. Their futures promise prison or worse, but for now they’ve been brought together to see about getting themselves—and each other—right.
Hope House follows its ensemble cast through a five-phase program as the boys search for the one thing none of them have ever really had: a family.
A deeply honest and soulful debut, Hope House is a coming-of-age story that sears with the anger and spirit of abandoned youth.
*****
“A gut-punch of a debut.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“A haunting story of the search for a better life.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
“An outstanding novel…incisive, humorous, and at times poignant.” —Foreword Reviews, Starred Review
*****
“Bond delivers blows right to your heart while also bringing so much care, love, and generosity to a population who are all too often pushed to the edges of society.” —Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books
“Bond tells this fictional version of life in a treatment home with a reporter’s eye, a counselor’s heart, and a peer’s knowing. He cares about these kids and what becomes of them. But he presents them with what feels like unflinching honesty.” —David Wesley Williams, Chapter 16
“Heartbreaking and heart-healing, illuminates what it means to call a place home.” —Kim Edwards, author of New York Times Bestseller The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
“A beautiful novel of tender frankness, building the lives of a group of kids with bottomless care and a fiercely keen eye for detail and movement.”—Aimee Bender, author of The Butterfly Lampshade
“A novel of life on the margins, written with style and grace, and populated with characters that stay with you long after the final page.” —Tom Newlands, author of Only Here, Only Now
“A rare, brilliant, generous, bighearted book that mines hope from the darkest and most difficult human experiences.” —Gabriel Tallent, author of My Absolute Darling and Crux
*****