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Grim realism about homelessness with a touch of magical realism, told in a meaningfully spare first-person voice. Eric’s father, who told him of the world’s exotic wonders, vanished suddenly years ago. The unexplained disappearance, exacerbated by his mother’s distance and his new stepfather’s cruelty, made Eric run. Now he lives on the streets of a city that was once meaningful to his father. Powerful gang leaders notice Eric and want something from him. They beat him, and murder becomes an imminent threat. Drugs and booze are already staples in Eric’s life, but sex filmed for porn is new, and he doesn’t want to do it. Acquiescing might stop a head honcho from slaughtering a girl Eric loves—or it might not. Eric is cast in a local play with mysterious similarities to his current life, but Yansky offers no over-romanticized escape through theater. Instead, the author deftly and subtly portrays Eric’s slow acknowledgement of the truth about his father, and provides an ending that, while still bleak, is livable. (Fiction. YA)
