The Twig Book Shop will host author Patton Dodd for the launch of his book: ‘The Father You Get: And the Ones You Make, Believe In, and Become’ (9/23). Dodd, a San-Antonio-based journalist and essayist, speaks to those who struggle with the fathers they got and the fathers they wish they had — and to anyone struggling to become the father they hope to be.

About the Author: Patton Dodd is the executive director of storytelling and communications for the H. E. Butt Foundation in San Antonio, Texas. Along with overseeing communications strategy for the organization, he runs Know Your Neighbor, a program that uses storytelling to build bridges across San Antonio’s economic divides. Dodd’s work has appeared in The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Financial Times, and Christianity Today.

Praise for ‘The Father You Get’:

“With the eloquence of a poet and the unflinching honesty of a man who has wrestled with his own story, Dodd delivers a poignant memoir about fatherhood, grace, and the long shadow of a painful past. This book is a gift to anyone who has ever wondered if they are doomed to repeat the past or if transformation and redemption are truly possible. Read this book. Let it change you.” —Ian Morgan Cron, coauthor of The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery

“I love my dad with my whole heart, but we have a deeply complicated relationship. Which is to say, we’re like most fathers and sons. Patton Dodd’s story is not my story exactly, but reading it felt strangely familiar in parts and helped me better understand my own. The Father You Get is a brave book and a riveting exploration of the nature of relationship between parent and child—both the ones that actually exist and the ones we often fantasize about. I could not stop turning the pages of this honest, insightful memoir. Everyone who has a father should read it—and yes, that means all of us.” —Jonathan Merritt, author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch: Why Sacred Words Are Vanishing— And How We Can Revive Them

“The Father You Get is a book for the haunted and the hopeful—for those shaped by absence and longing for presence. In this masterclass in how to write honestly, Dodd shows how excavating a father’s hidden truths is an act of redemption (for past, present, and future). The weight of the topic is naturally heavy, but often relieved by humor and top-shelf, compact writing. For anyone who has ever looked back to move forward, this is a book for you.” —Charlie Peacock, Grammy Award–winning music producer and author of Roots and Rhythm: A Life in Music

“What to do when you are dead set on not becoming the father you got? Take a road trip to dig up dirt on a deadbeat covered head to toe in it, reckon with his drunken neglect without prettying it up, and set it all down in indelible prose that exposes your own fatherly insecurities alongside the saving grace of your mother. A high-wire act of a ‘my-damn-dad’ memoir shuttling between anger and acceptance, doubt and faith.” —Stephen Prothero, author of God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World—and Why Their Differences Matter