David has a mind that never stops running. He reads Dante and Moby Dick, he sinks into Hemingway and battles with Milton. But on Florida’s Gulf Coast, one can slip into deep water unconsciously; at the age of 14, David runs away from home to pursue a girl and, on his journey, tries crack cocaine for the first time. He’s hooked instantly. Over the course of the next decade, he fights his way out of jail and rehab, trying to make sense of the world around him—a sunken world where faith in anything is a privilege. He makes his way to a tenuous sobriety, but it isn't until he takes a literature class at a community college that something within him ignites.
All Day is a Long Time is a spectacular, raw account of growing up and managing, against every expectation, to carve out a place for hope. We see what it means, and what it takes, to come back from a place of little control—to map ourselves on the world around, and beyond, us. David Sanchez’s debut novel resounds with real force and demonstrates the redemptive power of the written word.
Being yourself isn’t always easy. When you’re new in school, all you want is to fit in. When eleven-year-old Warren and his family move to a new city, his twin brother, who has Down syndrome, attracts too much attention for Warren’s liking. Bennie’s different and doesn’t care about it. But while Bennie may be oblivious to those who are curious or uneasy with him, Warren notices every smirk, comment and sideways glance.
Warren is weary of flip-flopping between trying to be just like everyone else and being the protective brother of a boy with special needs. Sometimes he thinks his life would be easier if he had no brother. But what he really needs is to stop worrying about what other people think.
On the surface, fourteen-year-old Chris is pretty average, playing hockey and having friends. But underneath it all, Chris is depressed, full of self-blame and negative thoughts. He quits his hockey team, feeling he has let them down, but his doctor suggests that he should pick up another sport. Chris starts playing soccer, and the positive benefits of sport start to take effect: He is motivated and has fewer self-doubts. But former hockey teammate Trent is on the team, and his suspicions about Chris and his emotional state threaten Chris's acceptance and recovery. When Chris and Trent are chosen for a team to play in a summer tournament, Chris decides to keep his depression a secret. But will rumour and stigma about his condition make him relapse and turn his own team against him?
Senior year changes everything for two teens in this poignant, funny coming-of-age story that looks at what happens when the image everyone has of us no longer matches who we really are. Senior year of high school is full of changes. For Hayley Mills, these changes aren’t exactly welcome. All she wants is for everyone to forget about her very public breakdown and remember her as the overachiever she once was—and who she’s determined to be again. But it’s difficult to be seen as a go-getter when she’s forced into TV Production class with all the slackers like Lewis Holbrook.
Andrew is a 15-year-old boy on the autism spectrum who believes that his twin brother was killed by his father when they were five years old. Though his father pleaded innocent, he is serving ten years in jail. His mother, who now suffers from alcoholism, supports her husband, who continues to claim that his son’s death was a fishing accident. Too scared to get in the canoe, Andrew waited patiently sitting under a tree by the edge of the lake. After witnessing from afar what he thinks is murder, he is unable to speak with the investigators. Bruised and scarred, he blames himself and now has to live with the memory of that day and all that has transpired thereafter. Though dealing with past turmoil, Andrew also deals with present issues of bullying and neglect, trying to fit in to a high school environment where he is often misunderstood.
Thirteen-year-old Robbie leads a double life. It's just Robbie and his dad, but no one knows that his dad isn't like most parents. Sometimes he wakes Robbie up in the middle of the night to talk about dying. Sometimes he just leaves without telling Robbie where he's going. Once when Robbie was younger, he was gone for more than a week. Robbie was terrified of being left alone but even more scared of telling anyone in case he was put into foster care. No one can know. Until one day when Robbie has to show the tough new girl, Harmony, around school. Their first meeting ends horribly and she punches Robbie in the face. But eventually they come to realize that they have a lot more in common than they thought. Can Robbie's new friend be trusted to keep his secret?