The Road Back

In his new book, The Road Back, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Michael Vitez writes about Matthew Miller, 20, a member of the University of Virginia triathlon club. Matt had just pedaled up a mountain pass and was on top of the world in so many ways, in love, with dreams of attending medical school, so fit his resting pulse was 42! And then, cycling along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, he was hit by a Porsche, face first, at 45 miles per hour. He broke every bone in his face and suffered severe brain injury. He stopped breathing. The real story is not what happened, but what happened after. The Road Back is the incredible, humbling, miraculous story of Matt’s survival and recovery, all the way to an Ironman, and medical school. It is a story, truly, of grace and grit. Vitez first wrote about Matt for his newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer. The response was so overwhelming, and the recovery continued to be so exceptional that Vitez took a leave, immersed himself in Matt's life and wrote the book.

Matt Miller's story really is The Perfect Storm in reverse -- everything had to go flawlessly for him to have any chance of survival. And it did! This is a story in which America shines.

THE ROAD BACK is not only about a young man’s drive to reclaim his life, but about the people who rode with him, rescued him, helped him heal, and saw up close his amazing comeback.