Bastard A coming of age novel set in southeastern Virginia in a long shadow of uncertainty during the late 1970s early 1980s.
Holland E. Patterson, called Hep, is growing up where fathers disappear, childhood ends early, and boys learn how to survive long before they learn why. Raised by a single mother stretched thin by work and circumstance, and a sister facing her own set of obstacles, Hep comes of age in a neighborhood governed by unwritten social rules, quiet violence, and the weight of what goes unsaid.
Hep and his friends steal, laugh, fight, and survive their way through a landscape shaped by housing projects, schools that expect little, and churches that offer both refuge and contradiction. Authority arrives late. Consequences arrive early. And every lesson, whether learned through violence, love, or loss, leaves a mark. Hep pushes back against the expectation the world sets for him while navigating and building his on expectations for himself. Friendship becomes protection. Music becomes refuge. Memory and cultural trauma becomes inheritance.