Wild oats

The novel opens with a stark warning, framing a hidden epidemic that threatens the health of a generation. Its narrator calls the crisis the ‘Great Black Plague,’ a metaphor for a social sickness that harms children as silently as any disease. The purpose is to pull the issue out of the shadows and make ordinary readers confront it.

In a bright April morning on East Broadway, Doctor Rast shaves beside a kitchen sink while his wife Nell cooks oatmeal and tends to their three‑year‑old son, David. Their home is filled with playful banter—David insists he bought a new nose for a dollar, and his parents laugh at his wild imagination. This intimate portrait of a working‑class family captures both the warmth of everyday life and the looming unease that underlies it.

Through the simple rhythm of chores and child‑like wonder, the story hints at deeper anxieties about the future of the city’s youngest citizens. The reader is invited to see how ordinary moments may conceal larger, more urgent concerns.