Breaking Away: A Harrowing True Story of Resilience, Courage, and Triumph

Patrick O’Sullivan was a kid with skills, with natural gifts that catapulted him into the spotlight and made NHL scouts rave. O’Sullivan seemed destined to become one of the world’s next great hockey players. But then it all went horribly wrong.

In the national bestseller Breaking Away, Patrick O’Sullivan gives readers a disturbing account of ten years of ever-escalating physical abuse and emotional cruelty at the hands of his father. When Patrick proved more skilled than other eight-year-olds, John O’Sullivan decided to dedicate his life to turning his son into the player he had always dreamed of becoming. Shouting at the top of his lungs, John O’Sullivan was the typical over-involved parent. Many teammates, parents and coaches thought it ended there. Few had any idea of the dysfunction and violence at the O’Sullivans’ home.

Breaking Away is a story about abuse, but it is also a story about triumph, as O’Sullivan revisits the ghosts of his past.