Born to a thirteen-year-old in the bathroom of his family's small apartment, Abraham Singleton enters a world laden with the obstacles inherent in an impoverished urban community. But when his mother becomes addicted to crack and his uncle—the family's basketball prodigy and their potential ticket out of poverty—is arrested and convicted, the last glimmer of hope is extinguished. Then a college scholarship offers Abraham a way out, but what of those he will leave behind? Tossed into tumultuous times, Abraham and his family struggle to overcome their grim environment and the crushing weight of the past. .<P>In the vein of Richard Wright's <em>Native Son</em> , this novel is a wake-up call to America “told exceptionally well in the lyrical first person voice of a sensitive and perceptive youth” ( <em>Booklist</em> ). A spellbinding coming-of-age novel about love, hope, and the will to survive, <em>Hold Love Strong</em> is a revealing look inside the nation's crumbling housing projects, and a universal story about the incredible capacity of the human spirit..