Days Running: A Novel

A dynamic portrait of one queer, Black boy’s experience in 1970s Cincinnati.

Sixteen-year-old Cliffy Douglas’s life is leveling up. An academic superstar on an accelerated path, he’s about to put high school behind him for college on the West Coast. His mentally ill father seems committed to seeking help for both his bipolar disorder and the PTSD brought back from the war in Vietnam. Cliffy even has a boyfriend—a summer romance that just might be the real thing.

But Cliffy’s life is flung into dangerous limbo after a vicious personal assault leaves him hospitalized, and with a terrible secret that threatens to ruin his escape from his claustrophobic family into a larger, more open world. As he recovers from his brutal attack, Cliffy must gather the complicated courage to face his assailant, demand justice, and fight off an encroaching despair that threatens his future.

With Days Running, novelist Shawn Stewart Ruff has created yet another dynamic portrait of one queer, Black boy’s experience in 1970s Cincinnati—chaotic family ties, the friction of shame and self-preservation, devastating violence, unexpected allies, and the desperate desire to break free.