Silas Dillon enjoys a full life now. At 40 years old, he’s a married father of four, foster father of six and minister to his church’s devoted flock. The joyful background noises of his houseful of children is a stark contrast to his lonesome beginning, when his birth mother, in the throes of heroin withdrawal, abandoned him the day after he was born.
Silas Dillon of Cary County is the sobering story of Silas Dillon, who ping-ponged between eight foster homes and two attempts at re-placement with his birth mother by the time he was 14 years old.
Told with gripping authenticity by author Cliff Schrage, Silas Dillon of Cary County begins with Silas’ birth on a frigid winter night in the fictional suburb of Cary Island in the New York Bay. His life becomes a series of glimpses into different realities — some harsh and grossly neglectful; some unapologetically abusive; and some well-intentioned but unprepared. Each one serves as a gross reminder of the fractured, overwhelmed foster care system. Silas is repeatedly transplanted from house to house, but none of them becomes a home. And occasionally, his mother does just enough to satisfy a lenient judge, and he’s returned to her world of drug abuse and prostitution
Damaged, fragile and without hope, he draws the attention of conscientious young social worker Molly Fresh, and this sets the stage for Silas to one day find the nurturing family and promising future that every child deserves.
Silas Dillon of Cary County is a candid look inside a typical foster care system that outwardly champions for the best interest of the children, but in reality, caters to the see-sawing whims of biological parents. Readers will witness Silas’ growing loneliness, alienation, anger and self-destructive nature, as he struggles to cope through his youth and early adulthood. Silas Dillon represents hundreds of thousands of young ones locked in a broken system. Will he be one of the lucky few who break free?
Author Cliff Schrage is a two-time published novelist — A Fruitful Field and Silas Dillon of Cary County — and published poet: Broken Prose, Spoken Poems. He has worked as a chaplain, and he taught high school English for 33 years. He is the father of eight children — two biological and six adopted (foreign and domestic) — and has endured the trauma of losing a child to a terminal illness. He has been married to his wife, Sherry, for more than 40 years.
For more information, please visit www.cliffschrage.com, or follow the author on social media at https://www.facebook.com/
Available from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and MorganJamesPublishing.com
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