Brian R. Chambers is probably the most unlikely person to have authored a novel, especially this one. Born in Boston in 1954, he spent most of his life in a small oasis known as Savin Hill in Dorchester that existed on the edge of civility, next to an area overrun with barroom hooligans and notorious gangsters who engaged in drinking and street fighting. During Brian’s formative years of the 60’s and 70’s, he managed to do his fair share of both—drinking, street fighting and drugs were his companions of choice.
He graduated from South Boston High School in 1972, an undistinguished student disinterested in his studies, except for a hidden inclination for poetry. After reading a poem he had written, his senior English teacher predicted, “Brian, you have a gift and you might even wish to become a writer someday.” He didn’t believe her. He left school to further his education on the unforgiving inner city streets. As a street kid, his life quickly cascaded into a hopeless existence. Brian traveled a dark and dangerous path, which led him to hellish places that not many return from.
A startling event revealed to him the true nature on his malady. He began to sense that his life was not meant to be the way that it was back then. From one of the grubbiest corners in the world, his life began to shift for the better. He became determined to alter his life, or if he couldn’t, he was going to die trying.
Everything began to change for Brian while on a favorite park bench he often frequented at the Boston Common in 1979.