Sky of Stone: A Memoir

In the summer of '61, Homer "Sonny" Hickam, a year of college behind him, was dreaming of sandy beaches and rocket ships. But before Sonny could reach the seaside fixer-upper where his mother was spending the summer, a telephone call sends him back to the place he thought he had escaped - the gritty coal-mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia. There, Sonny's father, the mine's superintendent, has been accused of negligence in a man's death and the townspeople are in conflict over the future of the town. Sonny's mother, Elsie, has commanded her son to spend the summer in Coalwood to support his father. But within hours, Sonny realizes two things: His father, always cool and distant with his second son, doesn’t want him there . . . and his parents' marriage has begun to unravel. For Sonny, so begins a summer of discovery - of love, betrayal, and most of all, of a brooding mystery that threatens to destroy his father and his town.