Nobody's Boy

Seventeen-year-old Damien Harlowe has spent his life trying to be the boy his aunt Pauline raised him to be—clean-cut, steady, college-bound. Pauline has fought for years to pull him out of the shadow of his father Kincaid, a hard-edged dockworker whose life is defined by grease, fists, and the kind of “honest work” that swallows men whole. But when Damien casually tells his guidance counselor he’ll probably end up at the docks anyway, the carefully built facade begins to crack. Drawn to sharp, unflinching Mara Mauer—the one person who sees through every polished performance—Damien starts confronting the hunger and violence he’s been taught to fear. As tensions explode with his father and the life he was meant to escape, Damien faces a brutal choice: keep performing the safe future Pauline sacrificed everything for, or finally become the Harlowe his blood demands he be. Raw, gritty, and emotionally unflinching, Nobody’s Boy is a powerful coming-of-age story about inheritance, rebellion, and what happens when a boy stops trying to outrun the man who made him.