Barrens is a historical fiction saga of a young lad's travails into manhood set in the turbulent times of mid-eighteenth-century colonial America. Through the desperate and violent era of the colonial frontier, external events, and circumstances, either by fate or Providence, help fashion the mind and soul of a man left searching for answers. John Scott is a young Welsh boy when he is thrust into indentured servitude on the frontier of colonial Virginia. Unexpected events leave him with questions only caused, he deems, by the hand of fate. John embarks on a journey into young manhood on a search for freedom and purpose. John finds purpose when reacquainted with a family who befriended him years ago. John Scott's quest leads him further into the western frontier, where he finds the adventure to satisfy his need to be free from the control of choices of others that marred his youth but led him afoul of the law. In the Virginia frontier, he thrives on dangers that confront him and the freedom of his own choices. Follow John into the land named Barrens as he searches for answers or, at least, peace for his barren heart.