The Reason You're Alive (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780062424303)

The New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook offers a timely novel featuring his most fascinating character yet, a Vietnam vet embarking on a quixotic crusade to track down his nemesis from the war.

After sixty-eight-year-old David Granger crashes his BMW, medical tests reveal a brain tumor that he readily attributes to his wartime Agent Orange exposure. He wakes up from surgery repeating a name no one in his civilian life has ever heard--that of a Native American soldier whom he was once ordered to discipline. David decides to return something precious he long ago stole from the man he now calls Clayton Fire Bear. It may be the only way to find closure in a world increasingly at odds with the one he served to protect. It may also help him to finally recover from his wife's untimely demise.

As David confronts his past to salvage his present, a poignant portrait emerges: that of an opinionated and good-hearted American patriot fighting like hell to stay true to his red, white, and blue heart, even as the country he loves rapidly changes in ways he doesn't always like or understand. Hanging in the balance are Granger's distant art-dealing son, Hank; his adoring seven-year-old granddaughter, Ella; and his best friend, Sue, a Vietnamese American who respects David's fearless sincerity.

Through the controversial, wrenching, and wildly honest David Granger, Matthew Quick offers a no-nonsense but ultimately hopeful view of America's polarized psyche. By turns irascible and hilarious, insightful and inconvenient, David is a complex, wounded, honorable, and loving man. The Reason You're Alive examines how the secrets and debts we carry from our past define us; it also challenges us to look beyond our own prejudices and search for the good in us all.

Author: Matthew Quick
ISBN-10: 0062424300
ISBN-13: 9780062424303
Publisher: Harper
Language: English
Published: 07/04/2017
Pages: 240
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.50w x 1.10d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 02/15/2017 pg. 65
Library Journal 02/15/2017
Booklist 05/01/2017 pg. 58
Kirkus Reviews 05/01/2017
Publishers Weekly 05/29/2017
Library Journal 06/15/2017 pg. 80
BookPage 07/01/2017
Shelf Awareness 08/11/2017