Tommy's nickname is Lucky, but no one would think this crippled boy was blessed. Cursed, with health problems and drawn into trouble more often than not, Tommy is the recipient of pity rather than admiration. He is nothing like his stepbrother, Eric.
Eric, a Nordic Adonis, is graced by a seemingly endless supply of good fortune—he is charming, a star athlete, and a magnet for anyone in his sphere. Yet in spite of these differences, Eric and Tommy are as close as two humans can be.

After tragedy rips their makeshift family apart, the lives of these boys split. In a powerful story of modern-day resilience and redemption, Tommy and Eric forge their separate ways in the world, each confronting his own challenges. For Tommy this means dropping out of school, selling drugs, living on the streets, and somehow creating a family of his own. For Eric, the golden youth, life means athletics, sexual attraction, prosperity, and the uncertainty that comes with prizes won too easily. Given everything, he trusts nothing.

Eric and Tommy's parallel lives are an astonishing story of self-determination and the true measure of fortune. The ties that bind them are thicker than blood, and when circumstances reunite Eric and Tommy after years apart, their distinct approaches to life may be the only thing that can save them from forces that threaten to destroy them.

Walter Mosley is the author of numerous bestselling works of fiction and nonfiction, including the acclaimed Easy Rawlins series of mysteries. The first Easy Rawlins novel, Devil in a Blue Dress , was made into a feature film starring Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle . Another novel, Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned , for which Mosley received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award , was made into an HBO feature film starring Laurence Fishburne . His first novel for young readers, 47 , was published in 2005. Mosley was born in Los Angeles and lives in New York.

Lorraine Toussaint spent four seasons starring as 'Rene Jackson' on Lifetime's critically acclaimed series, Any Day Now for which she was nominated for four NAACP Image Awards and the TV Guide Award for "Best Actress in a Drama Series". She starred opposite Halle Berry in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Her other series credits include Where I Live, Crossing Jordan, Leaving LA and Amazing Grace. Her numerous television credits include Law& Order, Murder One, and Threat Matrix. Toussaint's film credits include HBO's Cherokee Kid, America's Dream, and if These Walls Could Talk and the feature films Point of No Return, Psalms From the Underground, Breaking In, and Hudson Hawk