The Talisman Cock , debut novel from award winning poet and short fiction writer Henry Joseph Russell, follows sixteen-year-old David Smith, a talented cross country runner from Cape Cod who believes he's living his "Personal Destiny" when he earns a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school near Boston. Alas, David's new roommate, a notoriously womanizing and wildly confident ice hockey prodigy named Johnny Connolly, doesn't believe in Destiny. A sort of metaphysical libertarian (and libertine ), Johnny claims "Jesus powers" of meditation and visualization have helped him fashion his "perfect reality," a life defined by countless one-night-stands, lofty athletic glory, and his most cherished "creation: " a rather large male organ he's lovingly named his "Talisman Cock " But, when David becomes a hesitant disciple to Johnny's bizarre teachings, he unveils a stranger secret hidden behind his roommate's spiritual bravado: a Greater Destiny they both share. The Talisman Cock is a modern, coming-of-age classic for young adults and adults alike. Tackling dynamic theological and philosophical issues with humor, eloquence and grace, Russell has penned an American, boarding-school yarn worthy of the pantheon beside A Separate Peace and The Catcher in the Rye.