Mad Gorilla Writes

For fans of Jeff Zentner, Matthew Quick, John Green and classic sports fiction like Once a Runner, Vision Quest, The Rider and Breaking Away

Set in suburban Chicago in the late 1980s, A REASON TO RUN is a coming of age tale about a confused and ambitious teenage boy, his bicycle, a tragic accident and the healing power of running.

Days before the start of senior year of high school, a violent bicycling accident destroys Sam “Bags” Bagliarello’s plans to escape his status as “a low-budget nobody” and his family’s battles with substance abuse, mental illness and financial ruin. You see, if Bags blows his senior year, he’ll lose his ticket out of his hometown—a scholarship for financially-needy golf caddies—and the chance to be the first in his family to graduate college. 

When Bags starts running as physical therapy, he discovers an exceptional natural talent and an opportunity to gain the acceptance he seeks. He also learns rehab means more than fixing a broken body as he craves the morphine pumped into him at the hospital, the lingering effects of a concussion threaten his ability to return to school, his outcast brother forces his way back into his life, a budding romance dies, and he struggles to please his bitter mother while restoring a broken relationship with his distant father. 

As Bags works to salvage his GPA in order to keep his scholarship, endure withdrawal from pain killers, chase glory on the track team, navigate family dysfunction, and court the girl of his dreams, the people who matter most in his life get in the way of his plans for graduation, the state track finals, prom and family redemption. Ultimately, Bags is forced to choose between running from his insecurities and becoming the friend, brother, son and person he’s been hiding from all his life.

Bags's story is explored with a healthy dose of 1980s youthful independence and skepticism. It's a vivid take on the confusion, potential and music of a generation left to figure out adolescence on its own and question the so-called adults in the room.

A coming-of-age novel set in Vermont about a brother, a sister, family tragedy, falling in love, and a mysterious pet turtle with a chip on his shoulder.