Dodgers

Dodgers is a road trip novel, a coming-of-age novel, a crime novel--and more. Bill Beverly's debut, about four black kids from Compton confronting white Middle America for the first time, is as durable and expansive as the early-winter trees 15-year-old East notices along the Iowa-Wisconsin border: "rooted hard, grew up tall, muscular, their bare limbs grabbing all the air in the world." On a mission to the Midwest for their top dog, Fin, are four gang members: East, who has risen from drug house lookout to running a crew of younger kids; East's younger brother, Ty; fast-talker Michael, driving the van; and sitting shotgun, fat Walter, Fin's fixer and problem solver.

They make their way through the mountains and the plains, but things go south. Always on edge, Ty and East get crossways over stealing a car to get home. Walter puzzles out a way to score himself a plane ticket out of Des Moines. Alone, East makes his way to a small town in Ohio, where, exhausted with running, he settles into a job at a paintball range.

With the savvy of a prolific writer, Beverly plants a powerful conclusion on a powerful first novel. Dodgers is brilliant with no more than it needs--and no less. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan

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