Bestselling author Michael Thomas Ford demonstrates once again why he is the master of portraying the contemporary gay experience, in this moving, beautifully told story of love, family, and finding one's place in the world.
When a car accident leaves photographer Burke Crenshaw in need of temporary full-time care, he finds himself back in the one place no forty-year-old chooses to be—his childhood bedroom. There, in the Vermont home where he grew up, Burke begins the long process of recuperation, and watches as his widowed father finds happiness in a new relationship that's a constant reminder of everything Burke wants and lacks.
Meeting Will Janks is an unexpected complication. Will is the twenty-year-old son of Burke's high school best friend, Mars. After what transpired between them one summer long ago, Burke had hoped he and Mars might become more than friends, but Mars has always pretended that night never happened. Will, in contrast, makes no secret of his interest in Burke, who can't resist his attraction to the handsome young man.
The burgeoning relationship draws Burke out of himself and into the community he left behind. Exploring local history, he discovers an intriguing series of letters from a Civil War soldier to his fiancé. With the help of librarian Sam Guffrey, he begins to research a 125-year-old mystery that seems to be reaching into the present day. The more Burke delves into the past, the more he's forced to confront the person he has become: the choices he made and those he avoided, his ideas of what it takes to be a successful gay man, his feelings about his mother's death, and the suppressed tension that simmers between himself and his father.
Compelling, frankly funny, and often wise, The Road Home is the story of one man's coming to terms with who he is, what he wants out of life, and where he belongs—and the complex, surprising path that finally takes him there.
