The Road Back

The Road Back is a work of reportage by Michael Vitez, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist. Its central figure is Matt Miller, a third-year student at the University of Virginia and a triathlete. During a cycling training ride on Virginia's Blue Ridge Parkway, he collided head-on with an oncoming Porsche. His facial bones were almost entirely shattered, he suffered severe traumatic brain injury, and at one point he was not breathing and his life hung by a thread. A passing anesthesiologist took a risk and intervened at the scene, and an emergency medical team then carried on the resuscitation, saving his life. But the crash was not the end of the story; it was the starting point of a long road back: from recovery from coma and brain injury and repeated surgeries, to relearning how to speak, walk, and think, and eventually to returning to sport, Matt traveled an unimaginably difficult road together with his family, doctors, and friends. Vitez first chronicled the case in a series of reports for The Philadelphia Inquirer, then spent time following up with interviews to write this book. It is at once on-the-ground reportage on modern medicine and rehabilitation and a tribute to family devotion and individual will. The Chinese edition was translated by Chen Haibin and Liu Yang and published by Tianjin People's Publishing House in 2016.