{"product_id":"the-long-way-here-joshua-mccray-9798904528089","title":"The Long Way Here","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBefore I Knew My Name\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBook One of The Long Way Here\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eby Joshua McCray\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eForty-five years old. Single. A government job, a therapist he actually listens to, and a miniature Goldendoodle named Clark who has claimed two-thirds of the bed and shows absolutely no remorse. From the outside, Joaquin Aberra has built a life that looks stable, even successful. What he hasn't figured out yet is how to fully live in it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe is also still the five-year-old boy who stood on a sidewalk in New Mexico and watched his mother drive away.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Before I Knew My Name, the first novel in The Long Way Here series, Joshua McCray traces the emotional distance between where we come from and who we become. Moving between two timelines-young Joaquin, shaped by absence, expectation, and survival, and adult Joaquin, navigating therapy, loneliness, and the quiet, persistent hope for love-the novel unfolds as a deeply personal exploration of identity, memory, and belonging.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the Navajo Reservation to Chicago to Washington, DC, Joaquin carries with him the weight of family: a father who was never there, a mother who left, and a grandmother who rebuilt her life from nothing and demanded he do the same. In the present, he is learning-sometimes reluctantly-how to stay: in relationships, in cities, in his own life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBoth intimate and expansive, Before I Knew My Name is a literary novel about the long, uneven journey toward self-understanding. It is about the stories we inherit, the ones we try to outrun, and the ones we eventually learn to claim.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHilarious, heartbreaking, and quietly powerful, this debut announces Joshua McCray as a distinctive new voice in contemporary literary fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Joshua McCray\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798904528089\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e McCray Writes\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/17\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 140\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.43lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.30d","brand":"Joshua McCray","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48801637892351,"sku":"9798904528089","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-long-way-here-joshua-mccray-9798904528089","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}