Chris McCormick, "DESERT BOYS"

A luminous debut, Chris McCormick's Desert Boys traces the development of towns into cities, of boys into men, and the haunting effects produced when these transformations overlap. Both a bildungsroman and a portrait of a changing place, the book mines the terrain between the desire to escape and the hunger to belong. This series of powerful, intertwining stories illuminates Daley “Kush” Kushner's world—the family, friends, and community that have both formed and constrained him, and his new life in San Francisco. Back home, the desert preys on those who cannot conform: an alfalfa farmer on the outskirts of town; two young girls whose curiosity leads to danger; a black politician who once served as his school’s Confederate mascot; Kush’s mother, an immigrant from Armenia; and Kush himself, introspective and queer. McCormick is in conversation with Brit Bennett, author of The Mothers.