On one side he has his job as a filing clerk for the Washington, D.C., Department of Public Works, his girlfriend Sierra, and his plans for going to college. But on the other, darker side there are his friends Snowflake and Ray Ray, men who run the neighborhood streets dodging the dangers of the criminal life and its after-effects. But that thin line disappears when Thai walks in on Sierra with another man, whom he eventually kills in a haze of jealousy and confusion. From there Thai finds himself on the run and away from the five-block stretch where he’s lived for all his life. He finds his way to Charlotte, where Enrique, his closest friend of all, has moved in search of a better life. In the course of the week that follows, Thai encounters a series of men and women who show him aspects of life he never dreamed of in his narrow ghetto existence. All of them are looking for answers, but it is Thai who must find his own path out of the dark and into the clear light of moral responsibility and repentance for his actions.In his first novel, Kenji has written a haunting portrait of his own urban generation, shadowed (and often erased) by violence, but determined to make their own mark on the world.

    Have you ever cherished the pain because you knew the kind you’d face without them would be way too unbearable? That’s me. To young Neeka Perry, Denny is one thing. In the streets, he’s a whole other entity. But she was brave enough to love both sides, upside down, all around, and back again. He provided her with all a girl could believe she dreamed of – security, desire, and most enviably, genuine love, all wrapped up in gold and diamonds.He removed her far from the course of her ordinary college girl lifestyle and swept her into his world of whimsical madness. For this and more, her love went beyond loyalty. She was devout… devout to him. But is there a such thing as too much passion? Can you love someone too much? And when you realize the person you love and the person everyone fears can also be the one everyone loves and you can one day soon fear, who will save you? Especially when the person you need saving from, is yourself…? Stop right there. I don’t want to be saved. I’ve shackled myself to him with love. And I swallowed the key. I’m in this for the long run. I am devout.