A Song for the Asking Mass market paperbound - 1997

From the publisher

Dan Kane is the self-proclaimed king of his castle, his beachfront California home, and the iron-fisted loving ruler of his subjects-his wife, Catheryn, and his four children, Tommy, Travis, Allison and Nate. Hardened by his years in law enforcement, he is determined to toughen up his children to prepare them to face a violent world. The story unfolds over the course of a single summer when each member of the family pays a physical or psychic price for Dan's unwitting cruelty. Catheryn, who loves her rough-hewn husband, must defend her children against him. Tommy, the oldest, who struggles to live within his father's idealized vision of him as "the chosen one," favored for his physical strength and football prowess, meets tragedy for defying Dan's authority. Allison, the only girl and a budding writer, abandons hope of ever gaining her father's approval and so is deprived of his protection. Nate, the baby, only nine years old, is forced to keep a terrible secret for fear of his father's wrath. And Travis, the second son who is bullied and scorned by his father for his interest in music and other "weak" traits, must learn, the hard way, to stand up to the father he loves and hates.

"A Song for the Asking" is a deeply poignant and compelling first novel by a writer accomplished enough to bear comparison with the young Pat Conroy.