A segregated state.

A fundamentalist school.

A youthful trio of clever, mischievous buddies daring to play a game of truth and consequences.

Set in Montgomery, Alabama, during the 1950s and '60s, this razor-sharp novel is a coming-of-age tale of bold, defiant teenager Pip and his pals who question and baffle unconscionable authority in the most restrictive school, in the most pivotal city, in one of America's most turbulent times. How do they find the good path in a world stacked against goodness?

Author Philip Norris, Ph.D., born in 1948, spent his formative years in Montgomery, the place that transformed from the "Cradle of the Confederacy" to the "Birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement." Young Norris had a unique, contemporaneous, front-row perspective at ground zero of change. For example, he was able to eavesdrop on nation-changing political conversations between his father, a labor union executive, and his dad's friend, noted human rights lawyer Clifford Durr, the attorney who got Rosa Parks out of jail in 1955. This, a first novel, explores the poignancy and challenges of that incongruous, landmark era. The fast-paced, well-plotted tale will remind readers how Dickens and Twain treated serious topics with equal parts humor and blunt honesty.