A Memoir by D. Aiken

From the cracked sidewalks of Asheville's Black neighborhoods to the fragile silence behind slammed bedroom doors, Buncombe is the unflinching memoir of a boy navigating identity, family, and the weight of unspeakable truths.

Born into a web of generational pain, young Dennis is raised in a house full of women. They are strong, loving, and haunted. Still, he is often left to make sense of the world alone. With no father to guide him and no blueprint for manhood beyond what he can piece together from the streets, cartoons, martial arts flicks, and whispered conversations, Dennis learns to survive by staying quiet, staying sharp, and staying out of the way.

But silence has a cost.

Set against the backdrop of Asheville, North Carolina, before it became a playground for gentrifiers, Buncombe captures the rhythm of a Southern city in transition and the internal wars waged inside one young Black boy's mind. From church pews to high school hallways, from secret crushes to neighborhood betrayals, from the lure of violence to the ache of abandonment, Dennis confronts questions too big for a child and emotions too heavy for most men to admit.

Each chapter is a window into a moment that shaped him. Sometimes tender. Sometimes traumatic. Always true. Through it all, Buncombe refuses to flinch. It speaks on what most won't. It honors the wounds and the wisdom. This is not just a coming-of-age story. It is a reckoning.

This memoir is for anyone raised on survival. For anyone still learning to forgive what they weren't given. For anyone who understands that sometimes you have to write the truth down to finally lay it down.