Redemption Alley ― How I Lived to Bowl Another Frame

"Religion," says bowling legend Bob Perry, "is for people who don't want to go to hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been there."

Perry was a skinny kid from North Jersey who at the age of 12 was said to have the potential to become the greatest bowler ever. But in 1970s Paterson, everybody knew somebody "connected." Training for championships? Fuhgeddabout it. Bob was busy driving for Uncle Raymond, doing jobs for Bobby Cabert, and hustling hundreds of thousands of dollars in after-hours "action bowling" for the last Don, John Gotti. Perry's links to organized crime would later land him in federal prison, but not before he became hopelessly addicted to crack cocaine, alcohol, and painkillers and homeless on the streets of Manhattan. Ultimately, Perry washed up on the shores of St. Christopher's Inn, a shelter run by Franciscan monks. It was there that he had six fateful encounters with an angelic messenger who no one else could see-a monk whose message was so powerful that Bob Perry has now been sober for 21 years.

In Redemption Alley, Perry not only shares his remarkable story of bowling success, his dangerous association with hoodlums and gangsters, and his recovery from addiction, but also his inspiring, decades-long spiritual quest.

Bob Perry is a legendary former professional bowler.

Stefan Bechtel has written books that, combined, have sold more than 2 million copies. A founding editor ofMen's Health, he makes his home in Charlottesville, VA.