About the Book

Scott LeRette, with New York Times best-selling Susy Flory, pens a heartfelt and inspirational memoir capturing his son's joyful embrace of life - taking readers on a journey of love, fatherhood failure, addiction, and faith in The Unbreakable Boy: A Father’s Fear, a Son’s Courage, and a Story of Unconditional Love.

Like any other teenage boy, Austin loves pizza, movies, dancing, and girls. But unlike most other eighteen-year-olds, he has a rare brittle-bone disease, was locked in a mental ward as a child, and is autistic. Yet Austin doesn’t let any of that stop him.

Written with compelling candor by Austin’s father, Scott LeRette, with New York Times best-selling author Susy Flory, The Unbreakable Boy, set for release November 11, 2014, is the tender story of Austin’s joyful embrace of life’s tragedies and triumphs. His is a world where suffering a broken back is a minor inconvenience and the quest for the ultimate strawberry milkshake just might be the best day of his life.

But while Austin’s flare for crazy hats and zeal for life will truly inspire readers, the LeRette family’s story isn’t always milkshakes and rainbows. Allowing readers inside some of the most trying times in his own life, Scott also reveals the gritty moments of his family’s journey: a baby born before wedding bells, marrying a person you barely know, and the hard work that goes into making a marriage work. All that on top of having a son with major and irreversible health problems. Scott also opens up about his wife’s suicide attempt, the day he broke his own son’s back, and the life-altering effects of his addiction, including the night he almost killed his two sons.

“The Unbreakable Boy isn't really about a boy. It's about an entire family,” said Ellen Painter Dollar, author of No Easy Choice. “While the book centers on Scott LeRette's quirky son, Austin, Scott has his own unconventional perspective, offering a fresh, funny, sincere take on familiar struggles, with autism and addiction, illness and isolation, complacency and cynicism. His family's story reminds us that being "unbreakable" isn't about being free of pain, but about remaining open to the miracles of love and grace even, or especially, in hard times.”

Just like life, The Unbreakable Boy isn’t always pretty. But throughout the pages of this remarkable book, LeRette and Flory skillfully weave the beautiful and often humorous tale of how Austin teaches his father—and everyone else he encounters—to have faith in God and trust that one day life’s messes will all make sense.

“People want and need good, real, and meaningful stories,” said Scott. “Our story, I hope, is a story for the masses… one that will make you think, cry, laugh, hurt, and love all at the same time.”