The Maple Leaf

Personal mistakes. Shared redemption.

Troy and Vincent begin life together on the playground of Maple Leaf Elementary School. It's Seattle, the 1970s. Vincent is a white student from the neighborhood, while Troy is one of a few African American students bussed in as part of a desegregation program. Vincent quickly admires Troy and befriends him. They share childhood moments such as kickball games, discussions of first crushes, and after-school fishing trips—before their racist environment separates them.

As the decades go by, their lives take very different directions. Vincent finishes his time at Maple Leaf, then goes on to high school, college, an internship in London, and—for a time—a successful marriage and career. Troy, on the other hand, begins to suffer as soon as he's transferred to an elementary school in his own disadvantaged neighborhood. He becomes addicted to drugs in his teen years and cycles deeper and deeper into a life of violence and incarceration.

Interwoven throughout the two men's narratives are stories of Vincent's aunt, Shirley, and of a compassionate woman named Dolores Moffat, who struggles to find a meaningful place for herself in the world.

"KJ's novel follows two men across six decades—and across America's racial divide…He fully immerses readers in the characters' memories, as well as their healing processes." --Kirkus

"Captures the times and also moves past those times, giving the reader a strong sense of pain and possibility."  --Victoria Hanley, author of The Healer's Keep

"A thought-provoking look at recent history through the lens of a changing friendship." Indie Reader

FINALIST, 2015 NEXT GENERATION INDIE BOOK AWARDS