From an anti-other political climate comes a novel that gives voice to outcasts tyrannized by power. Boy in the Hole is the gripping account of Jacob, a boy wrestling to understand himself, his family, and the world in which he lives as he grows up in the Deep South in the seventies.

From an anti-other political climate comes a novel that gives voice to outcasts tyrannized by power. Boy in the Hole is the gripping account of Jacob, a boy wrestling to understand himself, his family, and the world in which he lives as he grows up in the Deep South in the seventies. Emerging from a family of sexual deviancy and alcoholism masked by religion and wealth, Jacob learns to define who he is, but struggles to find the balance between faith and sexuality. To embrace his true identity, he must go on an exodus to face his demons and overcome the pressures to conform. But his parents' toxic beliefs and the messages of self-hate taught by religion and society could prove his undoing. Will Jacob love himself despite the potential isolation? Or will he conform to the norms and settle for mediocrity—and a life in which he can never truly live?

Akiva Hersh has degrees in Neurolinguistics and Theology, and a background in training agents in the CIA, FBI, and Law Enforcement Officers; managers at Dell and 3M; professors at the University of Texas; supervisors at the United States Postal Service, and has consulted with various security details. He has helped abuse survivors, victims of bullying, and those struggling to come out as LGBTQ, and has volumes to say about how friends, families, and schools can help. When not writing literary fiction and thrillers, he pens short stories and poems, hikes with his insane but devoted Miniature American Shepherd Zeke, plays classical piano and enjoys suspense and horror flicks.