Dr. Carl Louis Young, PhD embarks on a profound quest to unravel his fragmented past and confront the legacy of an absent father, driven by a desire to provide his daughters with their true history. Raised by resilient Black women and shaped by early traumas, his journey spans navigating racial complexities, pivotal international experiences, and the struggles of early fatherhood.

A groundbreaking DNA discovery unearths a hidden paternal lineage, from enslaved ancestors to prominent civil rights figures, alongside unexpected siblings. This memoir is a powerful reckoning with inherited silence, transforming personal pain into a legacy of truth, presence, and healing, breaking cycles for future generations. It blends the intimate self-examination found in contemporary healing memoirs with the social awareness and cultural critique of writers who speak to generational wounds, systemic pressures, and the long arc of becoming.

Listeners who appreciate memoirs that blend personal history, psychological insight, and communal meaning-making will feel at home here. Dr. Carl's voice carries the same grounded clarity as authors who write about surviving family rupture, navigating identity in complex environments, and rebuilding a life with intention, dignity, and emotional literacy.

The book resonates with works that explore: Coming-of-age under pressure and the lifelong impact of early trauma, the journey from survival to self-definition, the tension between vulnerability and strength, the reclamation of voice, purpose, and emotional truth, and the intersection of personal healing and community responsibility. A Son's Reckoning is comparable to stories where the author becomes both narrator and witness, someone who lived the pain, learned from it, and now translates it into language that helps others understand their own.