The Harris Men Book

He took slow steps to the building, feeling as though he was being marched, blindfolded, to his place in front of a firing squad. Payment for the debt of leaving his children to grow up without a father, without love, without the knowledge that he even cared....There was no turning back at this point....He would handle the fear that he'd been escaping for twenty years, now.From RM Johnson, a breathtaking new talent in American fiction, comes The Harris Men, the powerful, stirring portrait of one father and the three sons he walked out on years ago.Fifty-five-year-old Julius Harris has one year to live after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Though devastated, he has known there would be some form of penalty to pay for leaving his wife and three sons twenty years ago. Since that time, he has made no form of contact with them. But now he has made a promise to himself: find his sons, reconcile with them, and make his family whole once more before he takes his last breath.But there will be difficulties...Marcus, the middle son, hates even the memory of his father and wrestles with fears of abandonment that prevent him from committing to the one woman who has turned his life around.Caleb, the youngest son, couldn't care less about his father because he is too busy struggling to support his son, prove himself to his girlfriend, and make his way in a world that seems relentless in trying to keep him out.And then there's Austin, the eldest son, who adores his father's memory and seems to be taking after him, abandoning his own wife and children as his father did twenty years before.Drawing inspiration from experiences familiar to him, RM Johnson explores the world of the Harris men -- and the ever-growing problem of absentee fathers -- with arresting and deeply moving compassion. As his characters grapple with the fears that haunt them and the choices that lie before them, Johnson skillfully gets to the heart of a complex, real-life issue that will forever be the source of much debate: what it means to be a man.Read More