Toadsuck isn’t a town. It’s not even a village. It’s a place located on the bank of the Arkansas River. But, as a child, author John “J. Dub” Black grew up in the area. In this memoir, he narrates a patchwork of stories that re? ect the adventures of his youth near Toadsuck.

Tales from Toadsuck follows four years of Black’s life beginning at age ten, when he fought the two asylum attendants as they dragged his screaming mother from their house, locked her in a van, and left. His alcoholic dad watched quietly and then drove away in his car never to return. His memoir describes the boy’s thirty-mile bike ride through farm country to the home of his aunt and uncle who let him live there and work on the farm. He shares tales of being attacked by a 400-pound wild pig, nearly drowning in a raging river, and playing Halloween pranks with his friends.

A story of both survival and love, Tales from Toadsuck tells of a boy coming of age while tackling both the good and the bad that life throws at him.