A Novel
Life's Fingerprints
Pennsylvania steel hangs heavy in the summer air as Dave, seventeen and restless about his future, sweats through another day on the construction site. Decisions about college, his relationships, and the right way forward loom. His senior days pulse with the thrum of Friday night lights, the roar of student-filled bleachers a marked counterpoint to the quiet ache of choosing a future. Between the uncertainty of what lies ahead and the trusting camaraderie of his friends, Dave wrestles with the bittersweet truth that leaving Steel City might mean leaving a part of himself—and his family—behind. In Life's Fingerprints, we join a young man on the ambiguous, often awkward final year of high school—an endearing walk along the streets of our childhood, colored with hope, nostalgia, and the strain that comes with leaving the nest for good.