NIGHT JOURNEY

The gritty South Ward of Phoenix, Ariz., is the setting of this blistering coming-of-age debut, rich with the vernacular of inner-city life. Turtle, a lean, stuttering hustler, and Eddie, his strong, introspective younger brother, are dependent on each other for survival in the urban underworld they inhabit. When Turtle is 12 and Eddie is 10, their father abandons the family and the boys run wild. They set up camp in an abandoned house, fighting off attackers with sticks and knives. Turtle is already a pimp in training, running streetwalkers twice his age. When he recruits Tessa, a waif-like hooker, Eddie grows to love her. After Tessa is raped by Turtle's rivals, Eddie decides he must find a way off the neighborhood's mean streets. Turtle, seeking to prevent Eddie from following in his footsteps, convinces a local boxing coach to train the boy, the first step to his becoming a Golden Gloves champion. A future of riches and fame seems a possibility, but that dream fades as Eddie succumbs to the allure of petty scams and easy sex. Turtle, meanwhile, kills a man, and Eddie seeks direction in the teachings of the Nation of Islam. A colorful supporting cast—Jules, a gay club owner; Detective Patricia, a no-nonsense cop; Minister Bilal, a dapper young Muslim leader—keeps this from becoming the usual sinner-to-saint yarn. Eddie's spiritual and emotional journey is convincingly rendered, and Kalam's sense of the grotesque gives the novel a vivid, fluorescent glow. Agent, Denise Shannon.(Oct.)