He

I remembered black eyes and bruised ribs and hands heavy with prayer like fists raining down.

Preacher’s kid Jackson and orphaned Oren grow up in the same dusty, poor, Bible-thumping farm town. When they meet at sixteen, they discover they have more in common than just their roots and brutal upbringing. Together, they begin to explore their orientation and their burgeoning love for each other. When they are threatened with consignment in conversion camp, they abruptly leave town together. Oren attends college, while Jackson learns a trade. In their new surroundings, they discover friends and a sense of safety for the...

I remembered black eyes and bruised ribs and hands heavy with prayer like fists raining down.

Preacher’s kid Jackson and orphaned Oren grow up in the same dusty, poor, Bible-thumping farm town. When they meet at sixteen, they discover they have more in common than just their roots and brutal upbringing. Together, they begin to explore their orientation and their burgeoning love for each other. When they are threatened with consignment in conversion camp, they abruptly leave town together. Oren attends college, while Jackson learns a trade. In their new surroundings, they discover friends and a sense of safety for the first time. Forty years later, when a shocking act of betrayal destroys their relationship, each is left wondering if there can be love after the apocalypse as they look back on a past they cannot change and a future they cannot predict. When Oren reluctantly attends his fortieth high school reunion and reconnects with his high school crush, sparks unexpectedly fly. A remarkable tale of romance and resilience, using the premise that orientation is simply a pattern of attraction, He explores what happens when that pattern is broken.

Told epistolary style through journal entries and Facebook messages, the book is divided into periods, each of which is denoted by a color, rather than traditional chapters.