Spread Thy Love

A young boy heads off into the great unknown in Christopher Ross's new novel, Spread Thy Love. The Great Depression has hit fourteen-year-old Samuel's family hard. Desperate to survive, his mother tells him he must leave and try to make it on his own, as she can no longer afford to feed him. As Samuel heads out to ride the rails with nothing more than a bindle stiff on his back, he harbors fantasies of finding the father who long ago abandoned the family. Convinced his father is living a prosperous life in Chicago, Samuel heads that way in hopes he'll be taken in with loving arms. First, however, he must navigate the harsh Kansas landscape. Along the way Sam meets "Cookie"; the cook working in the hobo jungle, Gibraltar; a young black poet who quickly becomes his best friend, and Ada and Lettie; two strong girls with whom Samuel instantly falls in love. As Samuel inches ever closer to his ultimate goal of finding his father, he and his retinue of friends encounter songs, danger, and kindness, in their unending search for sanctuary.