Foreword

The person you will read about here is not extraordinary. He is a boy. His story has never been told before. Many stories like it exist, maybe, or maybe not. He is not a character of history, but he is also not a fabrication. Not everything in his life is literal fact, but all of it is part of his true story.

Make no mistake. This is a novel. But it is not merely fiction. What you read is the story as it really goes, as it really is when it's told right. What is reality and what is imagination will not be made evident, because these distinctions don't matter in stories about life.

I know this boy. I have walked in his shoes in some places, shook his hand in others, or seen him from a distance. You see, his story is not about him. It is about everyone, at its best. I have taken snapshots of his life, and written down his words. So you can hear him two ways, sometimes in my words, sometimes in his, as it were. He doesn't really have a name, but if you want to call him something, you could call him Peter, or Samson, or Paul, or Adam. I am sure that, when you get to know him, you will be able to name him yourself.