Sons I never had

The novel Sons I Never Had explores the roles of guilt, regret and forgiveness in grief through the literalization of haunting. The use of multiple perspectives and nonlinear telling aims to replicate the narrative structure of intergenerational loss, and the cultural, socio-economic differences implicated by it. Inspired by the femicides of South America, the roles of community organizing and local groups like Alcoholics Anonymous are referenced and contrasted with the broader structures of the modern penal system and state social work care. Queerness and identity are also prevelant lenses in this text. The story is divided into three sections, beginning by establishing the origins of the protagonist’s beliefs and misguided redemption arc (The Garbage Man), and broadening in the second section to include each individual character touched by grief (The Streets), finally contextualized and explained by the ghosts themselves in the third section (The Ghosts). Culminating in a trial that seeks to place blame, the ghosts’ stories remain untold and a moot punishment is decreed. Sons I Never Had offers a commentary on possibilities taken, or disappeared, pointing towards how children come to represent the past, present, and future. The role of motherhood, regardless of identity, as the carrying and the cleaning of what goes unseen, is examined by all involved, including the ghosts themselves.Arts, Faculty ofGraduat