Private lessons. Professional coaches. Specialized camps for sports, math, music and other fields. Today’s children are pushed to achieve excellence --- or else. But at what cost? New York Times bestselling author Douglas Brunt’s third novel, TROPHY SON, tells the story of a tennis prodigy, from young childhood to the finals of the US Open, Wimbledon and other tournaments around the world.
Growing up in the wealthy suburbs of Philadelphia, Anton Stratis is groomed to be one thing only: the #1 tennis player in the world. Trained relentlessly by his obsessive father, a former athlete who plans every minute of his son’s life, Anton both aspires to greatness and resents its all-consuming demands. Lonely and isolated --- removed from school and socialization to focus on tennis --- Anton explodes from nowhere onto the professional scene and soon becomes one of the top-ranked players in the world, with a coach, a trainer and an entourage.
But as Anton struggles to find a balance between stardom and family, he begins to make compromises --- first with himself, then with his health, and finally with the rules of tennis, a mix that will threaten to destroy everything he has worked for.
TROPHY SON offers an inside look at the dangers of extraordinary pressure to achieve, whether in sports or any field, through the eyes of a young man defying his parents’ ambitions as he seeks a life of his own.
TROPHY SON will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Don't miss Carol Fitzgerald's commentary in the June 9th Bookreporter.com Weekly Update newsletter.
- Click here to read a review.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Connect with Douglas Brunt on Facebook and Twitter.
Click here to enter the contest
by 11:59am ET on Thursday, June 1st.
