Running Is a Kind of Dreaming: A Memoir

In this stark debut, Thompson, a trauma psychologist and ultramarathoner, recounts his difficult path from severe depression and substance abuse to sobriety. After meeting his wife at the Burning Man Festival in 1999, the author emigrated from England to San Francisco to marry her. Struggling with the severe depression that he’d lived with since childhood and medicating his pain with a variety of drugs—including crystal meth and cocaine—Thompson checked in to a psychiatric ward in 2005. Later, while in recovery, he channeled his energy into ultra-long-distance running (running anywhere from 50 to 200 miles), opting to let his body’s endorphins lift his spirits and help him rebuild “a feeling of togetherness” with his family. “Ultrarunning can sound like insanity,” he writes. “But ultrarunners understand its mad logic: running for days and nights nonstop brings you right up to the edge of breakdown but also to the opportunity for breakthrough.” This “breakthrough” eventually led Thompson to seek a career in psychology and a career helping others work through the same shame, guilt, and fear that he details here with heart-wrenching clarity. This will beam a ray of hope to those dealing with addiction, as well as their loved ones. Agent: Bonnie Nadell, Hill Nadell Literary. (Oct.)