A Novel Coming Your Way in April

PURE BRONX Synopsis

Pure Bronx is the story of a young couple from the South Bronx trying to make it out of the ghetto and have a taste of the prosperity middle class Americans take for granted. Khalil, 21, is an intelligent, respectful young man forced into Heroin dealing by circumstance. Born and raised in the Patterson Houses, he is also the main provider for his mother, two younger brothers, younger sister and her two children. Rasheeda, 19, moved to the nearby Mitchell Houses when she was 8 and has fought her whole life to stay in school and not become a statistic. Now in college, she is struggling to make ends meet for her mother and younger brother as well as pay her tuition by stripping at a local club, Cheetahs. After falling behind in her tuition payments and getting suspended from work, Rasheeda breaks down in front of Khalil, revealing her intense hatred at having to strip to go to school. As a joke she suggests kidnapping her richest client, Robert Seidman, who also happens to be one of the wealthiest men on Wall Street. Powerless to help Rasheeda, Khalil takes her suggestions seriously and they hatch a plan with the help of Khalil’s friends Mamadoo and Juno to kidnap and ransom Seidman. However, after drugging him and hiding him out at Juno’s garage, they find out that Seidman has been involved in a Ponzi scheme this whole time. There is NO money and on top of that, Seidman’s wife is so betrayed she tells the kidnappers
they might as well kill him.


Action packed, set in the first year of Barack Obama's presidency, Pure Bronx is more than just a story of two kids that make it out of the ghetto. It’s a story of the Bronx and diverse people who make it what it is, including hustlers, gang bangers, immigrants, the working poor, and powerful interests trying to make money off its struggling people. But it also has a twist new to Street Literature- a secret organization that helps people in poor communities even the odds against those trying to exploit them, ignore them and push them aside. Khalil and Rasheeda have love on their side, but they also have the PJC, a mysterious organization headed by a Professor named Nelson Temple who knows how to beat the rich and the powerful at their own game.