Bent Hope: A Street Journal

By Tim Huff and Athena Dixon

Book Overview

The winner of 3 book awards as best book in it's category, Bent Hope was born out of Tim Huff's first twenty years of unique and extensive work among homeless and street-involved youth and adults, in one of North America's largest urban centres--Toronto, Canada. Bent Hope is a collection of thoughtful narratives birthed beneath crumbling bridges and in the hidden alcoves of darkened alleyways after midnight. These gripping true-life stories surface quietly from unforgiving corridors of fear, hurt and uncertainty--and unexpectedly and supernaturally transform them into fascinating places of intimacy and godly anticipation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1894860365
• ISBN13: 9781894860369
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Castle Quay Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

This book gives me hope

This book is nothing short of brilliant. You should ALL read it. Really. It will change you. It will change the way you look at the "drunk" sleeping in the office doorway or the "punk" trying to bum a cigarette. It will make you want to sit down beside someone on the street and listen to their story. Tim Huff has an uncanny way of bending words into incredible stories and undeniable wisdom. More than that, though, he has an uncanny way of seeing through the dirt under the fingernails, the smell of yesterday's alcohol, and the bitterness of a life gone off the rails to the nugget of truth and beauty underneath. He doesn't sugarcoat life on the streets - no, it's raw and real and ugly - but what he does is recognize the tiny light of hope - even if it's badly bent out of shape and barely recognizable - shining through each person he meets. Here's the thing - more than just a powerful set of stories, this book renews my desire to believe in God. This book reminds me that if we set aside the many failures of the church, the messed up legalism and hate disguised as "WWJD", the narrow-mindedness and judgementalism - if we set all of that aside and look to the pure and unadulterated message and life of Jesus, we will find what we've all been aching for - hope. Tim Huff is out on the streets trying to live out that message of hope in a way that few pastors, televangelists, or social justice soap-box shouters have ever done. Not only that, but he's letting the light of hope shine through the stories and lives of messed up people to teach those of us who've let cynicism blind us that it really is okay to dream of a different future.