A gutsy coming-of-age novel that may rip your heart out. Set in Philadelphia during the tumultuous 1960s, This Way Out is the story of three inseparable friends on a forced march through a long, often entertaining, sometimes harrowing journey. 

A reckoning is coming.

Surrounded by a ten-foot wall, the Dumonde College for Boys, a centuries-old institution, is home to sixteen hundred fatherless and orphaned White boys.

Beyond the north wall, a Black neighborhood crumbles and erupts, roiling to integrate the Dumonde campus. Protesters circle the gates, day and night. Beyond the south wall, defeat exhausts the lowest White people. In between lies a stronghold where the stoic Dumonde boys live behind the times, disregarding a world in turmoil shaking their walls.

No boy here gets the childhood he imagines. The Dumonde College for Boys is a hall of mirrors populated by devils disguised as caretakers and some precious few better angels. There are no metaphors for this experience. Nothing else resembles it. What these boys share may be enough to survive severe conditions, where fear is commonplace and friendships nurture courage. All are seeking a way out. For some, it may be too late.

Ron DeChristoforo is an author and former college English teacher who grew up in a boarding school for fatherless and orphaned boys in North Philadelphia. His novel, This Way Out, draws on a decade of stories shared by the boys of his youth. Luckier than most, he spent a lifetime wondering, What happened, and who were all those people?Ron holds an MFA from Columbia University and a BA from Temple University and spent most of his career in publishing and educational technology. Early on, he wrote three novels based on screenplays: Grease, A Small Circle of Friends, and The One and Only.He and his wife live in Williamsburg, Virginia. Family and friends are scattered throughout Virginia, Philadelphia, New York City, and New England; he carries these people, places, and stories in his heart.