The Jade Rabbit, the story of a miraculous marathon run by a Chinese Adoptee, is now available.

Oct. 8, 2011 - PRLog -- The Jade Rabbit, the story of a miraculous marathon run through the streets of Detroit by a Chinese Adoptee, has been released to coincide with the 34th running of the Detroit Free Press Marathon.

Available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other major online retailers, The Jade Rabbit is a unique, emotional, and visceral novel, and is now available in paperback.  The author has been invited by Running Fit to sign copies of the novel at the Detroit Free Press Marathon. The expo takes place October 14th and 15th at the Cobo Center in Detroit.

The story highlights an unforgettable main character, Janice Zhu Woodward, who was left by her birth-mother in China and then adopted by parents from the U.S.  She becomes the director of a runaway shelter for neglected youth in Detroit to help children just like her on the other side of the world.  To cope with the madness of her job and the lingering trauma of her abandonment, Janice emulates her adoptive mother and becomes an avid, obsessed marathon runner.  When a mysterious girl with dreadlocks is left at the shelter, Janice becomes her surrogate mother, and risks everything to save her.

The title of the novel is based on an ancient Chinese fable of a rabbit who sacrifices itself in order to serve others and is thus immortalized.

“I think of it as The Secret Life of Bees meets Once A Runner,” says the author. “It’s an adoption novel, a coming of age story,  a search for ones heritage, as well as a vivid depiction of the spiritual, psychological, and physical challenges of distance running. The main character has such incredible strength and nurturing power, yet is also fragile, near her breaking point, and longing for someone to care for her and answer the questions she has had since birth.  All of the turmoil in her psyche gets acted in a torturous marathon training program, and culminates in an unforgettable finish line.”

The author is a social worker,  an avid marathoner, and has a vested interest in adoption from China.  His first novel, Stray, has been downloaded over 10,000 times and has received all four and five star reviews on amazon.

The Jade Rabbit; now available on Amazon  http://www.amazon.com/The-Jade-Rabbit-ebook/dp/B005IQM8J2  as well as Barnes & Noble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-jade-rabbit-mark-matt...