Fresh Fields Book

This is a dark, disturbing novel, all the more so since it is somewhat autobiographical. Kocan leads his reader ever deeper into a quagmire of hopeless and helpless emotions, experienced through the main character in the story. The reader knows before beginning the story what the ending will be, but the author keeps sowing seeds of hope and empathy in the reader's subconsciousness, compelling one to read on in the desperate hope that things will turn out differently. We have all travelled parts of the road traversed by the "youth" of the story and this is what does not allow you to escape completing the book. Peter Kocan pointedly omits names for the main character, his mother and his younger brother: the victims of the story. Lesser characters all have names, contrasting with the namelessness of the main character and his mother and brother, a stark message to the reader/society. Readers beware, once you begin this book, you will be compelled to complete it, your soul having been appropriately scored.