The Reason You're Alive - Hardcover

"Inspiring... Matthew Quick has a way with wounded characters."--Boston Globe, on Love May Fail

"Surprising.... At the core of the novel is the voice of David Granger, a combination of Archie Bunker and Marlow of Conrad's Heart of Darkness.... A valuable addition to fiction about the tangled aftereffects of Vietnam on soldiers in the field."--Kirkus

"The author of The Silver Linings Playbook delivers another engaging and screen-ready dramedy about an irascible misfit on a mission for closure."--Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Dark, funny, and surprisingly tender."--Publishers Weekly

"The role of David Granger may someday be played by an Oscar-hungry actor. But that shouldn't distract from the vivid, high-definition protagonist that already glows from the page.... That candor and honesty gives this first-person narrative its potency. It also supplies the humor."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"A book of unexpected turns, a fun and funny narrative intermixed with many dark plot lines, The Reason You're Alive is a poignant work and a must-read this summer."--New York Journal of Books

"Poignant and uproarious.... A novel that thrums with energy.... A vibrant and compassionate tale of a complex man finding his way in a divided America."--Minneapolis StarTribune

"Quick has an amazing ability to build characters who are big-hearted and hopeful even in the face of great tragedy, heartbreak, and trauma. In this case, once you get beneath the camo and insults, you begin to really see Granger."--Writer's Bone

"The Reason You're Alive is fundamentally about the power to forgive both yourself and others.... Quick forces both readers and characters to reexamine their first impressions through his narrator.... In classic Quick fashion, the novel is full of intriguing supporting characters."--AV Club

"A scorching family drama. The Reason You're Alive is narrated with ire and eloquence by David Granger... It's as if Holden Caulfield grew up to be a reflective, even soulful, Archie Bunker.... A touching, old-fashioned drama about the ties that sometimes choke, but always bind."--BookPage