Demon Copperhead meets Les Choristes in this tender coming-of-age story, told through the intersecting lives of a group of troubled boys in a home for ‘delinquent’ young men in the American south in the 1980s

LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION 2026 FIRST NOVEL PRIZE

“I don’t know about that, sir. We’re delinquents,” said Damico. “If you give us an inch, we’ll take the whole mile.”
Watts laughed us off.
“All I’m saying is there’s things we can do different. I’m talking about you fellas helping me get this right. What do you think?”

They came from the streets, the sticks, and every place in between. They've stolen cars, dealt dope and hurt people. They've been hurt themselves. They’ve been labelled ‘delinquents’ and cast out from their families – if they ever had a family at all. Their futures promise prison - or worse - but for now, they've been brought together to live in an old house on a hill, and see about getting themselves - and each other - right.

Spirited, angry, confused, and misled, these are the boys of Hope House, an institution for ‘delinquent’ young men in 1980s Kentucky. There is Smoove, named for his distinctive walk after he was shot in both feet back home in Louisville. There’s Damico, reported for shoplifting and assault, even though that was only part of the story. There’s Bobby, who tells brave tales of adventures of coyotes but goes quiet at the thought of his father. And there’s Awol, who can’t stop running away, only to return to the place he knows best.

Deeply honest and soulful, Hope House is a novel about searching for belonging and lifting each other up; about coming of age into a society that’s already closed its doors; about lost boys who grapple with their pasts, dare to imagine different futures, and nurture the almost outrageous hope that they might just turn everything around.

'A stunningly beautiful debut; a novel of life on the margins, written with style and grace, and populated with characters that stay with you long after the final page' Tom Newlands, author of Only Here, Only Now

'A rare, brilliant, generous, bighearted book that mines hope from the darkest and most difficult human experiences' Gabriel Tallent, author of My Absolute Darling

'This beautifully told novel, heartbreaking and heart-healing, illuminates what it means to call a place home' Kim Edwards, author of The Memory Keeper's Daughter

'A beautiful novel of such tender frankness, building the lives of this group of kids with bottomless care and a fiercely keen eye for detail and movement' Aimee Bender, author of The Butterfly Lampshade

© Joe Bond 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026