Kipligat's Chance: A Novel

Seventeen-year-old John "Leeds" Kipligat lives with his parents in a bleak housing project. To escape the poverty and desperate cycle of their current lives, Leeds and his best friend Kulvinder Sharma make a pact to join their local track club and try to win scholarships to an American university.

But the world of competitive running proves more intense than a young boy of streets could ever have imagined. With enormous mental and physical demands, running soon becomes not just a sport for Leeds but a way to escape his troubles. From memories of a life in Kenya that he and his family were forced to flee, to the discriminations he faces everyday as a young African man to his own self destructive tendency, Leeds soon finds that running maybe a way to save his life.

David Odhiambo creates a compelling coming of age story full of struggle and redemption. At once poignant and gritty, with a keen ear for language, Odhiambo renders a world few will ever know.