A compelling novel of a man brought to reckon with his buried past... In St. Adrienne a small black community in Louisiana Reverend Phillip Martin--a respected minister and civil rights leader--comes face to face with the sins of his youth in the person of Robert X a young unkempt stranger who arrives in town for a mysterious meeting with the Reverend. In the confrontation between the two the young man s secret burden explodes into the open and Phillip Martin begins a long-neglected journey into his youth to discover how destructive his former life was for himself and for those around him. ...on every page there s an authentic moment or a dead-right knot of conversation or a truer-than-true turn of phrase... --Kirkus Reviews