This is the story of a boy shaped by abandonment and abuse, who returns to his estranged mother at age 12 and has to figure out how to survive in her new life. Based on the author’s real-life childhood, Mickey tries to find his place amidst poverty, suffering and religious self-righteousness in the 1950s. From Chicago to Mormon country in Ogden, Utah, where religious intolerance strikes deep, and finally to California, the honest and raw voice of young Mickey takes the reader on an emotional journey of adolescence, in which the determination to survive creates unlikely moments of hope and triumph. This is a sequel to Mickey: The Giveaway Boy.