Family Ties

By Ernest Hill

Book Overview

In the acclaimed A Life for a Life, Ernest Hill created an unforgettably candid story of violence, love, and redemption with teenaged D'Ray Reid at its center. Now, with his jail time behind him, D'Ray has returned home to find that the real fight for survival is only beginning...

Everyone was shocked when Mr. Henry took D'Ray Reid under his wing. After all, Mr. Henry's real son, Stanley, was murdered by D'Ray-a crime D'Ray committed to save his brother, Little Man. Yet in the years since, Mr. Henry has tried to show D'Ray how to become the man Stanley would never be.

After Mr. Henry's death, D'Ray seeks out his own mother, Mira, hoping to rebuild their broken relationship. But D'Ray's homecoming is more tumultuous than expected. Arrested for a crime he didn't commit, Little Man has escaped and is in hiding. Mira blames D'Ray for Little Man's troubled history, but she has her own secrets to hide. And putting things right will mean uncovering a legacy of lies and hidden agendas, and realizing the only way to be free of the past is to stand tall and confront it at last...

Praise for the novels of Ernest Hill

"If novels offer us a way of seeing the world that we could not imagine before, A Life for a Life does just that." -The Times-Picayune

"An exceptional literary piece that some readers will compare to Richard Wright's Native Son."-Booklist on Satisfied with Nothin'

"As the story unfolds...these unforgettable characters come to full, sympathetic life."-Publishers Weekly on A Person of Interest

"A skilled storyteller." -New York Times Book Review

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B005OHZZ5E
• ISBN13: 9780758213143
• Release Date: September 2010
• Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Not a Page-turner But Interesting Read!!!

Family ties is an interesting, unpredictable read about a young black boy(D'Ray) that was trying to protect his younger sibling(Little Man) by murdering a teenage white boy, Stanley. After D'Ray's release from juvenile, Stanley's father, Mr.Murphy took D'Ray under his wing and forgave him for killing his only child. The story begins with the funeral of Mr.Murphy and Mr.Murphy's sister(Miss Big Siss) influencing D'Ray to go back home and visit his estranged mother. Reluctantly, D'Ray honored Miss Big Siss request. Unfortunately, D'Ray's homecoming was anything less than grand. Wouldn't it be great if we could choose friends AND FAMILY? The book was written in a unique way, it read like a skit, instead of a novel. It was written well, characters developed, but the excessive conversational style writing took away from the story. The book needed more storytelling. Family Ties wasn't a page-turner, but VERY interesting. Overall rating: 4.0

AAMBC Book Reviews

`Family Ties' is the story of a young man, D'Rai who after going to prison for killing a young man and upon his release, lives with the family of the same young man, acquires a college degree and decides to leave and start a new life. He's persuaded by Miss Big Sis to return to his home to see his mother and his little brother, Lil' Man, only to find out that his mother doesn't want him there and Lil' Man is the subject of a statewide manhunt. Lil' Man has decided to flee and D'Rai tries to prove his brother's innocence. D'Rai accidently runs into the love of his life, Peaches who gives him an ultimatum, to convince Lil' Man to give himself up or their relationship. `Family Ties' is a remarkably believable, unexaggerated and unpredictable story of family, love and a look into the meaning of forgiveness and triumph. The story of how a family copes and supports each other (or not) through overwhelming adversity. `Family Ties is an exciting read and will grab you from the first page.The author, Ernest Wills gives a great example of a family who overcomes and when someone is truly `up against a wall'. The story of a son's relationship with his mother and his need to understand her indifference for him and her favoritism for his younger brother and the reasons why. I enjoyed reading `Family Ties', although the author wrote "Family Ties' with excessive dialogue, at times, and reads like a movie with subtitles. There's a minimal amount of description of the settings and surroundings or the characters. I would definitely recommend this book. Tanya Matthews AAMBC Reviewer