Sing for Your Life ─ A Story of Race, Music, and Family

Ryan Speedo Green had a tough upbringing amid the urban wastelands of southeastern Virginia. His family lived in a trailer park and later a bullet-riddled house across the street from drug dealers. His father was absent; his mother was volatile and abusive.

At the age of twelve, Ryan was placed in solitary confinement in Virginia's juvenile detention center of last resort for threatening to kill his mother. He was uncontrollable, uncontainable, with seemingly little hope for the future.

Thirteen years later, in 2011, at the age of twenty-five, Ryan won a nationwide competition hosted by New York's Metropolitan Opera, beating out 1,200 other talented singers. Today, he is a rising star performing major roles at the Met and Europe's most prestigious opera houses.

SING FOR YOUR LIFE chronicles Ryan's unlikely, suspenseful, and powerfully emotional journey from solitary confinement to stardom. Daniel Bergner takes readers on Ryan's path toward redemption, introducing us to an important and colorful cast of characters--including the two teachers from his childhood who redirect his rage into music; and his long-lost father, with whom Ryan is reunited--and shedding light on the enduring realities of race in America.