The Bastard Year

"It was exactly one year ago today," my father said, "that the hostages were taken."
He looked at me as if he wanted me to say something. I figured he was probably wrong about it being a year to the day, but I wasn't about to tell him that.
"A year is a long time," he said. "A lot can happen in a year."

In the company of classic coming-of-age works, Richard Zuras's debut novel tells the story of a boy's final year of childhood and a family's near disintegration. When Zain's father is fired fro...