Back Roads is the 1999 novel by the American writer Tawni O'Dell, and was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection in March 2000.

"Harley Altmyer, a nineteen-year-old, becomes the caregiver for his three sisters when his mother is jailed for killing his abusive father.

[6] While still just a teenager, Harley Altmyer suddenly becomes the head of his family's household when his mother is convicted of killing his abusive father and sent to prison, changing his future from a vision of college life that included drinking beer and chasing girls to one in which he feels trapped in a small, dead-end, coal town-life as a nineteen-year-old forced to work two minimum-wage jobs in order to care for his three younger sisters.

[6] After a chance encounter with a beautiful but depressed mother of two who lives nearby, he becomes obsessed with her even as he explores the dynamics of his dysfunctional family with the help of a court-appointed therapist and begins a journey of self-realization and healing.

In late 2015, it was announced that Alex Pettyfer and his producing partner Craig Robinson, who set up Upturn Productions in 2015 with the intent of securing literary works that could be made into film or television, secured the rights for a film adaptation of the book.