The Concrete — Daniel Abbott

Set in an impoverished area of Grand Rapids, Michigan, the novel follows the Carters and their foster sons, Isaac and Miles. The two boys share a dark past, though neither of them are aware of it. As the boys try to escape the grim reality of the violent streets―in different ways―Isaac through basketball, Miles though music―the novel shifts back and forth in time, in the process revealing the story of an entangled community plagued by trauma and death, trying to confront the ghosts of its past, and seize a better life.