Within the 11 seconds that inspired this memoir, Travis Roy realized his dream, then smashed into his nightmare. On an October night in 1995, Roy, a talented young hockey player, skated onto the ice for his varsity debut with Boston University. Eleven fateful seconds later, he was paralyzed from the neck down. Aided by the sure touch of Sports Illustrated hockey writer E.M. Swift, Roy's moving account of his accident and his rehabilitation--confined to a wheelchair, he's gotten some use of his right arm back--avoids the maudlin. Instead, Eleven Seconds is filled with grit, hope, humor, and a thoughtful young man's introspection on the meaning of sports and the adjustments that follow when the ability to play them is taken away.


From Booklist
In October 1995, ready to play his first game as a member of the Boston University hockey team, Travis Roy looked forward to the biggest day of his life. It was big but for all the wrong reasons. Eleven seconds into the game, he cracked his fourth vertebra and was paralyzed from the neck down. With coauthor Swift, Roy tells the inspirational story of his life after the accident. He still can't walk but has regained some mobility in his right arm and has come to realize that his life is worth living. As he describes the stages of his rehabilitation, the agonizing slowness of the process emerges vividly. So does his sense of humor; he recalls, for example, the time he and his fellow patients at Atlanta's Shepherd Center giddily stole some potato chips, only to realize that none of them possessed the dexterity to eat their booty. This is an informative, clear-eyed examination of what it takes to fight back from personal tragedy. Wes Lukowsky


From Kirkus Reviews
The story of an athlete whose career was cut short by a devastating injury is sadly all too common, but here it is told with unusual honesty and feeling. Twenty-year-old Roy was eleven seconds into his first collegiate hockey game as a Boston University freshman when a crash into the boards broke his neck. Assisted by Sports Illustrated writer Swift (coauthor of the bestselling My Sergei), Roy describes his growing-up years as the son of a hockey coach in Maine and his fierce love of the sport that dominated his life from an early age. His dreams of making the US Olympic team and then the National Hockey League ended on October 20, 1995, when the fourth vertebra in his spine was shattered, leaving him a quadriplegic. Parents of hockey-playing teens take note: On average, four players are similarly injured every year. After months in a Boston hospital and an Atlanta rehab center for spinal-cord injuries, he returned to his parents' home in Maine to recuperate. A year later he was back at Boston University, starting again as a freshman, this time not as a hockey star but in a wheelchair, struggling desperately to fit in. What distinguishes Roy's story is the degree to which he lets the reader share his sadness. The subtitle may speak of triumph, but the victories are heartbreakingly tiny ones, and there are more tears than cheers. While portions of the text slip into sports lingo that only hockey fans will fully grasp, no special knowledge is needed to understand the trauma suffered by the whole Roy family or to appreciate their warmth and caring and that of Roy's girlfriend and his empathetic coach. A true horror story with a mildly upbeat ending. (8 pages b&w photos) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER