Joseph wants a new life, he wants to go to college and make something of himself. But when his mother develops cancer and his disabled brother gets involved with the local drug dealers he has to put everything on hold. Now with a widening circle of his friends in danger Joe must race to put the pieces together before it is too late, before everything slips away. This is real life, people intertwined with each other and strung together by the most tenuous of relationships. They are a hodgepodge of characters; a group of lost souls, several ending up dead, their lives cut short by their own ignorance. Just as in real life those around them may have wished they had never been born, but they were. They were tossed into this world as a cast lot, now they must live the life given to them. They have what we have, cancer, mental illness and drug addiction. They suffer from their wrong choices, thrown into prostitution, gangs and poverty. This novel deals with what we avoid and what we cannot. Copper deals with the choices we sometimes have to make, that of leaving what we know and stepping off into the unknown or staying behind. In the end for them, there may only be one path to life. This ensemble of castaways left to perish in an urban jungle each must choose their path. One man may find it, others unfortunately may not. They may sell their soul for a hand full of copper or save it taking the narrow road out of town.