There are countless migratory kids who populate the outskirts of New York City’s gay wonderland. These young people — mostly black or Latino, often homeless, but more often from poor and working-class families — are what policymakers and social service agencies call at-risk youth. They rank among the most likely people to experience a disturbingly wide array of social ills: suicide, drug addiction, HIV infection, dropping out of school, and hate crimes.

But reports of these problems obscure more fundamental realities about their lives. The dangers they encounter come as pitfalls in their search for life’s basic emotional necessities: homes that provide more than shelter; security that protects against more than just violence or disease; and love.

Drifting Toward Love tells the story of one such teenager and his friends as they embark on their own precarious journeys to belonging. Wright neither diagnoses their problems nor prescribes solutions, but instead uses his own literary and journalistic skill to allow a more complete and human portrait to emerge. The narrative describes their heroism and their mistakes, their victories and their tragedies. In doing so, it unfurls a powerful, emotional, and at times troubling story that anyone who has navigated adolescence will recognize.