Riding Out the Storm: A Novel

Zach is riding the Greyhound bus through a snowstorm to visit his older brother Derek whom he hasnt seen in seven months. Thats when their parents finally went broke paying Dereks doctors bills and had to give him up as a ward of the state. Nothing―not drawing in his sketchbook not basketball―lets Zach forget that his brother is living in a mental institution five states away. But surprisingly sitting next to a talkative teenage girl he nicknames Purplehead starts to take the edge off Zachs pain. . Prompted by a chain of unpredictable events and by the people he meets along the way Zachs cynical humor gives us a poignant look at medical insurance and health care systems for the mentally ill and at the everyday fears joys and revelations of adolescence.